Sucker for the Big Screen

Sucker for the Big Screen

by: Kurt Krug

Images Courtesy of Big Screen Entertainment

Kimberly Kates, CEO of Big Screen Entertainment, confessed it’s hard to take actor and director Michael Manasseri seriously when he directs in his Insect Man get-up on the set of Sucker in Pontiac.

“Insect Man looks very disgusting,” said Kates, best known as Princess Elizabeth in 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Kates plays the wife of Manasseri, the male lead in the film.

According to Manasseri, who also wrote the script, Sucker is a cross between a horror movie and a comic book movie. It incorporates aspects from The Fly, Darkman, and Spider-Man (the latter two directed by Michigan native Sam Raimi), with a Sin City-esque look and a Batman-esque dark style.

“I read Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman, and The Flash. I was not a comic book fanatic but I did read a ton of comics,” said Manasseri, best known for his role in Weird Science, a sitcom based on the John Hughes film of the same name. “I love comic book movies. I love heroes. I love villains. I wanted to try to make a cool, indie comic book-style film. If that’s what it ends up being at the end of the day, I’d be very happy about it.”

Manasseri plays Jim Crawley, a scientist who gets fired from his job and is abducted by a mad scientist who experiments on him and exposes him to a deadly virus. Instead of dying, Jim becomes half-man, half-mosquito.

“Jim Crawley is in a very gray area because of what happens to him,” Manasseri said. “The best heroes are the best characters when they’re gray. They’re far more interesting than the black and white heroes. That inner turmoil creates more tension.”

Clad in a suit and tie between takes, Manasseri spoke about shooting his film in Michigan while makeup artist, Cindy Chu, touched him up. Manasseri has a deeper reason for making films in Michigan - he also lives in Rochester Hills.

“The main reason I’m here is my family... so the fact that I was able to be with [them] after being away for a long time was a game-changer,” said Manasseri.

Manasseri praised the Michigan movie tax incentive, which passed in 2008, giving filmmakers a 40-42 percent rebate on shooting films in the Great Lakes State.

“[The Incentive] allowed me to be with my family again and do movies and what I love to do.”

“I wouldn’t be here. We would’ve gone elsewhere. I’d still be in Califonia. L.A. was very good to me and I did many great things there. Coming here is all about the incentive,” he said. “It’s good for this state, especially when this state has struggled so much. People don’t understand how good this is for Michigan.”

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