Angelfire is a superheroine who knows her worth. And that worth? The center spotlight in a movie all about her — not as a sidekick, a recurring pair of boobs, or a sacrificial love interest to be kidnapped or killed.
Too bad Hollywood doesn’t see it that way. Sure, she gets some sexist crap from the baddies she beats up — one tells her, “you’re cute when your angry” mid-battle — but that’s nothing compared to how she’s treated by the studio execs who claim “I’m a feminist!” but can’t imagine giving her her own movie.
In the hilarious, pointedly satirical short below, Angelfire goes from studio to studio, pitching her movie to execs who call her “toots” and “sweetheart” and think of awful, skin-crawling taglines like “Justice… is a bitch” and “She’s no pussy.”
Asked what inspired him to write the short, Jordan Zakarin (full disclosure, a colleague at TheWrap) replied:
I spent a lot of time at Sundance writing a story that involved the producer Mynette Louie, who runs Gamechanger Films, a production company that focuses on woman filmmakers, so these issues were on my mind. And then, looking at the summer movies — and the superhero films that dominate conversation — it became clear how much the game was still rigged. Alison [Vingiano] is an awesome actress and we had already been writing stuff together, so when this came up in conversation — spurred by Elizabeth Olsen’s non-role in “Godzilla,” among other things — it seemed like the perfect subject to play with and make a fun but hopefully forceful statement about.
“We shot and started editing way before the news about Sony’s maybe-possibly woman-led Spider-Man spinoff came out earlier this week, but we think the point obviously stands, and hopefully the short fuels the conversation, while getting a few laughs, too.”