Sadly, in Australia, journalists are still forced to be doing junkets for Fired Up!, the boys-go-to-cheerleading-camp movie that I blocked from my memory about five minutes after seeing it in February. But at least Moviehole's Clint made good use of his time spent with star Eric Christian Olsen, who admitted that he was recently all set to play the lead role in a movie adaptation of The Greatest American Hero.
Hero, if you were born in the 90s, was an 80s TV show about an everyday guy who discovers a super-suit and becomes, of course, a superhero. Olsen said he'd snagged the role after finishing Fired Up!, but it apparently wasn't meant to be. "They were like ‘This is our guy' but they didn't have financing in place. But yeah, I booked it - but because the budget was so huge they couldn't get the money."
Not too surprising-- Hero isn't exactly a no-fail comic book property like Spider-Man, and Olsen isn't the big star usually needed to get these things started. His failed attempt at superhero status probably doesn't mean much other than that there are casting directors out there who think he's the real deal. So keep a eye on him, and pray to God that he avoids things like Fired Up! for the rest of his career.
