“The Duel” Offers A First Look At A Different Kind Of Superhero Movie
Today at the LA Shorts Fest, award-winning filmmaker Vladislav Alex Kozlov will be presenting “The Duel,” a short film that will serve as a preview for his upcoming movie “Hollywood Superman.” You may not feel like 2022 needs yet another superhero movie in its lineup, but this one’s different: it’s a documentary. How is that possible, you ask, if there are no superheroes in real life? ….Well, if you expand the definition….
If you’ve been to a major city like NYC or LA, you are no doubt familiar with the kind of panhandlers who dress up as popular characters and pose with tourists in hopes of getting cash. “Hollywood Superman” is a documentary about one of those people…the late Chris Dennis, who wandered around Hollywood Boulevard in his own Superman costume for over twenty years.
Dennis never had an easy life — the doc will go into his bouts with homelessness, the time his costume got stolen, his struggles with addiction and his tragic death in 2019. (He was buried in his costume.) Before that happened, though, Kozlov was able to meet with Dennis and gather a life story that might have been lost otherwise.
“My plan is to finish and present “AMERICAN SUPERMAN” to the entire world so people can see the life and struggles of this extraordinary guy whose childhood was very brutal and instead of becoming a bad person, he chose to be a better man and became Superman,” Kozlov says. “His goal was to always help and entertain people and make them smile and be happy. But as any other entertainer he didn’t have much for himself since he spent all of his energy for the other people. When Chris was out of his costume he would turn to that abandoned and abused kid. He was fighting his demons – the mental illness and drug addiction. I want people to see this story because Superman has always been the symbol of hope, and I want people to have that hope back.”
“The Duel” will screen later today, 3:30pm PT at the LA Shorts Fest. “Hollywood Superman” is still a work in progress with no release date yet.