Woody Harrelson Gets "Mildly Retarded" for Defendor
Woody Harrelson goes from hunting zombies in Zombieland to fighting supervillains in Defendor!
By Brent Sprecher - 11/13/2009
Actor Woody Harrelson disappeared from the movie scene for several years to pursue environmental issues, but he's back with a vengeance, starring in the hit action-comedy Zombieland and in the upcoming "dramedy" superhero flick, Defendor, which was picked up by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group after a successful screening at the Toronto Film Festival.
Defendor tells teh story of Arthur Poppington (Harrelson), a wannabe superhero who thinks he can thwart Captain Industry, a (possible) drug and weapons dealer. Poppington makes his own costume and becomes "Defendor," venturing into the night to fight crime with grit, determination, marbles, and lime juice.
In a recent interview with THR, Harrelson described his character:
"It's a guy who's mildly retarded who thinks he's a superhero, only, of course, bullets don't bounce off and he gets beat up all the time. He's trying to fight crime and falls in love with the girl, played wonderfully by Kat Dennings, who's a crack whore. Peter Stebbings wrote and directed it; he's an actor. I was surprised how good it turned out, and luckily Sony thought so, too, because they picked it up (in Toronto)."
As for doring research for the role, Harrelson said that you can only do so much; the rest you just leave up to your imagination:
"Well, I had a specific thing in mind for what his condition was. I don't want to make it a movie about that, so I won't say what it was, but I did research on that ad nauseam and met with a lot of people who have that condition. The other part about wanting to be a superhero, I just used imagination."
Defendor also stars Sandra Oh, and Elias Koteas.
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