“We didn’t really have superheroes,” Samaritan director Julius Avery (Overlord, Son Of A Gun) tells Total Film of growing up in the 1980s. “We only had action heroes. And Sly was the closest thing we had to a superhero. So to put him in a superhero movie? That feels fresh and cool and something that people will get a kick out of.”
He’s not wrong. The conceit of Samaritan is a peach: a young lad learns that a superhero who went missing 20 years ago is living next door to him. Yep, it sounds like a powered-up Finding Forrester or Apt Pupil, and Avery confirms that the tone will be grounded in humanity – a film about a kid looking for a father figure, by a director who lost his own dad when he was young.
But that doesn't mean this won't be one action-packed affair. "This is a big event movie – we see our heroes kicking ass," Avery confirms. “We’re going to see Sly do things he hasn’t done in a long time, and in a really inventive way. He’s 73 years old! I’m amazed by how much he actually does. I’m telling you, most guys in their twenties wouldn’t be able to do what Sly does in this movie.”
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Samaritan is scheduled for release on June 4 in the UK. For more on the film – and a massive preview of all the biggest movies heading your way in 2021 – pick up a copy of the new issue of Total Film magazine when it hits shelves (real and digital) this Friday, January 8.
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