Description
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When a key witness in a homicide goes missing, the American Crusader sets out on the hunt for a methodical serial killer in this dark and moody crime drama.
A WORD FROM CHRIS
American Crusader is probably my favorite public domain superheroes. His design is actually pretty timeless, and was something I really wanted to keep as accurate as possible when adapting. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the quality of the writing in his adventures. Regretfully, the American Crusader suffered from a string of copy and paste stories. Every adventure was him in his Clark Kent rip-off persona, and his Lois Lane stand-in running afoul gangsters and Nazis, with her getting captured and him quick changing into the American Crusader to save the day. It was predictable, cheesy and unsatisfying. To make matters worse, the American Crusader never even had a notable arch nemesis. No Lex Luthor stand-in, no Joker types, nothing. Just gangsters and Nazis. It was very boring.
The inspiration behind my take on the American Crusader actually came from the Adventures of Batman and Superman, specifically when Superman came to Gotham and stepped in for Batman, who had gone missing. In that episode, you get to see Clark have a little fun playing against type as he pretends to be Batman. So I decided to apply that to the American Crusader. What if the Superman character was actually stoic and brooding, rather than a shining beacon of optimism?
It should come as no surprise that I used THE BATMAN (2022) as my template. I wanted a grounded crime drama story, with grungy music and moody atmosphere. Yes, the American Crusader still has super powers, but they are significantly limited. The dude isn't a god, he's just bullet proof, can fly and has above average strength.
For my villain, I chose the Puzzler, for several reasons. A few years ago, when I was developing my defunct dark and gritty take on the Black Terror, I pit him against the Puzzler, who (at the time) was a bit more punk. Going into this story, while I'm sure people will draw comparisons to the Riddler, rather than making him an incel, I actually stuck closer to his comic origins, as a very petty man who gets pushed into a life of crime due to feeling overlooked. I went with the hazmat suit and gas mask for two reasons. The first- it just looks really cool, rather than his goofy green and yellow checkered spandex suit from the comics. The second- it actually services the plot. If this guy is trying to frame someone else for murder, and not breathe in toxic chemicals, the best way to go about it is with a hazmat suit and gas mask. For his personality, I went with unassuming at first, followed by maniacal conviction, rather than the sneering arrogance he displayed in the comics.
Filming for this project was actually rather complex. Scheduling was not easy so I had to shoot this movie in multiple chunks, and edit certain characters together in post. For example, the shot of the American Crusader standing over Iaccono was a comp shot. They were not on set the same day, nor was the Puzzler on set for the grenade sequence. Thankfully with the help of editing, angles, and body doubles, you'd never really know unless I told you.