There’s no denying that this is a summer(!), the year(!), the millennium(!) of excess when it comes to comic movies. Seriously, between “The Dark Knight,” and “Iron Man,” and “Spider-Man,” and all the others, no amount of exclamation points is too many when it comes to proclaiming our love for the genre.
But that’s not true for everybody. Is it possible that the recent emphasis on superhero flicks has robbed us of some other, smaller dramas? It’s not only possible – it darn near almost happened to a movie called “Flash of Genius,” starring Greg Kinnear as Bob Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper, the star confessed.
“Yeah, you know, funnily enough, ‘Flash of Genius’ was originally titled ‘Windshield Wiper Man’ and to tell you where I’m at with the comic book world, it sat on my desk for like a month because I thought it was a superhero movie,” Kinnear laughed. “[I thought it was about] guy with like a squeegee, flippers, and a 'W' on his cape. It’s true!”
Having starred in “Mystery Men,” Kinnear himself obviously has no general aversion to the genre. He just thought, you know, a movie about a guy called Windshield Wiper Man would be flipping silly. And, really, I think we can all agree on that.
So given the huge success of comic movies, could it be that Kinnear would one day return to the genre? Is there a comic character out there he’d like to get his paws on?
“A character that I have my eye on? Windshield Wiper Man, that’s it,” Kinnear joked. “Okay, you got me!”
Would you be more or less likely to see the fictional film “Windshield Wiper Man” based on a character played by Kinnear who has a squeegee and flippers compared with the very real “Flash of Genius”? Explain.
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