Archenemy

Archenemy (2020)

A hero comes from within.

Max Fist claims he’s a hero from another dimension who has somehow landed on Earth and been stripped of his powers. Instead of treating him like a powerful champion, no one believes Max’s claims — except for a teenager named Hamster and his sister Indigo. The siblings convince Max to help them take out a local drug gang, where Max’s abilities are put to a violent and harrowing test.

Date of release
2020-11-30
TMDB
5.2 / 10 (147)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Action, Crime, Science Fiction, Thriller
Director
Adam Egypt Mortimer

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $147.8K

Archenemy is a 2020 independent superhero mystery-thriller film written and directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer based on a story Mortimer created with Lucas Passmore. Joe Manganiello, who also produced the film, stars in the lead role alongside Skylan Brooks, Paul Scheer, Glenn Howerton, Zolee Griggs, and Amy Seimetz.

Production

Archenemy was conceived by Adam Egypt Mortimer after envisioning a single scene in which a "man who wears a tattered cape and sits in a bar drinking whiskey talking about his glory days" and likened his idea to The Wrestler as a superhero movie as "it’s that same sense that his glory is behind him and he’s broken because of it".

The filmmaker went on to direct Daniel Isn't Real, but kept Archenemy in his back pocket. By August 2019, Mortimer presented the film to SpectreVision, who produced Daniel Isn't Real, but was waiting for the green light. Eventually, the film was given the go-ahead with a limited budget that allowed Mortimer to make the film "violent and psychedelic" as well as his "most personal".

Joe Manganiello was cast as Max Fist in November of 2019. Manganiello, who produced the film along with his brother, Nick, was a fan of the SpectreVision-produced Mandy and wanted to work with the studio. SpectreVision played him Daniel Isn't Real and he promptly signed on. The actor did not see Max as a superhero and instead worked with a man who was homeless for two decades and studied methamphetamine addiction to portray the character.

Principal photography began on December 9, 2019 in Los Angeles, California with Halyna Hutchins serving as director of photography. Mortimer described the production of Archenemy as "the most difficult" of his filmography at the time.

The sequences set on Chromium were initially going to be filmed in live action, but budget restraints halted these plans. Instead, Mortimer pivoted to animation. A team of animators were brought in to work on the scenes; their work was "very well done, but felt more like a motion comic" which left Mortimer unsatisfied.

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