In a departure from most superhero movies, is told from the point of view of, well, the sidekick. "I think the sidekick, in some ways, is Canada," says Michael "It's not purposeful, but I can see, being a Canadian, why I would choose a sidekick to be my hero. There's a part of me that feels, the odds are I wouldn't be the guy with the power." But in fact, Michael's won himself some considerable clout with this film; Focus Features, a studio for hipster navel-gazers, negotiated with Michael for the rights to remake his film with a big budget. They nearly made him promise never to show the original: "some of Sidekick can only exist in the indie world. They were like, 'great job, we'll buy the screenplay off you; and you'll get rid of THIS movie. Don't show it.' And I was like, I can't. I've been working on it for over year and a half now, all my friends and family worked on it, and I believe in it."

One scene in Thursday and Friday's screenings that won't be in the remake is Micahel's favorite. "The alleyway scene is tricky. In fact, in rewriting, it was one of the first things gone. It was a little risky for a mainstream superhero movie. ... Victor decides to teach [some criminals] a lesson by making them, uh, do things to each other. And that's a realistic thing to do -- 'you making fun of me, how about THIS?' And it's one of those moments that the audience is laughing, and then when Victor takes it too far, where maybe a decent person wouldn't, and the audience gets quiet, like there's a nervous laughter. And that scene is one that I had to fight for ... it works because everybody in the theater questions why they were laughing and enjoying it in the first place."

We'll be running a review of Sidekick after Thursday's screening (4:30, The Roxie; then same time and place on Saturday). As an added bonus, Michael and a slew of cast and crew will be present at the screenings.

Sidekick