Struck By Lightning is about a high school student who isn't above blackmailing fellow students into writing for a literary magazine in order to get into Northwestern University. But the making of Struck By Lightning feels like Revenge of the Nerds.
The film (see the first trailer below) was written by its star, Chris Colfer, who most people know as show-choir fashionista Kurt Hummel on Glee. In Struck By Lightning he plays Carson, a manipulative loser who will do just about anything to make his classmates' lives miserable – and make his magazine a success.
In real life, Colfer was a bullied kid who was "the only member of the writer's club" in high school. He went on to become a star thanks to Glee, made the Time 100 list last year and now has written a film lampooning students in the small town of Clover (Colfer, we're presuming it's no coincidence, is from Clovis, California).
If that's not a dish served cold, we don't know what is. And from the looks of it, the ingredients in Lightning are delicious.
First off, the film was directed by Brian Dannelly, whose 2004 dark comedy Saved! put hip Christians on blast in a way so unparalleled it made teen pregnancy seem fun and Mandy Moore seem indie. Then there are performances by Allison Janney (Carson's mother), Angela Kinsey and Christina Hendricks, all of whom seem incapable of an unpalatable performance.
Finally, there's the icing on the cake: Bridesmaids' Rebel Wilson, who plays Carson's awkward sidekick and snaps back at a blackmail-denying cheerleader by saying their fellow students "will believe, because we will spread that shit like Nutella."
No official release date has been set for Struck By Lightning but it should come out sometime this year. Anyone else hungry for more?
[via E! Online]
