For multiple seasons over on Amazon Prime Video, Jack Quaid has helped to wage a war against “Supes” as a member of the gritty anti-hero establishment, The Boys. When Quaid started off playing Hughie Campbell, he was a regular guy absent of powers, though a lot has changed as the cast heads into The Boys Season 5. And something is about to change for Quaid… at least, on the big screen. The actor is poised to lead a brand new action comedy called Novocaine, directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. And in the movie, he will play a man blessed (or cursed) with a rare genetic disorder that prevents him from feeling any pain whatsoever. The trailer for the film just dropped, and we got the chance to break it down with Berk and Olsen, so dig into both:
Coming out of the Novocaine trailer, I had questions. Thankfully, directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen had answers. Here’s what they told CinemaBlend:
How much pain is too much pain?
This ended up being one of the chief concerns for Berk and Olsen as they approached the story of a main character who can’t feel pain. Obviously, as you see in the trailer, Jack Quaid’s hero doesn’t feel a thing. Stab him, shoot him, drop his hand into a vat of cooking grease… he’s just going to keep on going.
Because these filmmakers cited the everyman action hero Bruce Willis as an inspiration, they were very concerned that this unique power might strip Novocaine of some suspense. As the directors told CinemaBlend:
We had to keep a log of all the damage he was taking, and make sure that it all landed within the realm of believability, and that we were never going so far that you wouldn't believe that he could be physically alive after taking all of that damage. It was a really cool part of the process, in prep and as we were shooting, working with our special effects, and our prosthetics team, getting an entire map of the body with a timeline of all 139 little lacerations and wounds and this and that, and tracking every single hit and saying, ‘Okay, would that cause a human, no matter how tough, to be knocked out?’ Because that's not what's happening in the scene!
That sounds like an incredibly fun challenge. And just for clarity’s sake, because the mutant healer Wolverine gets name dropped in the Novocaine trailer, I had to ask whether or not Jack Quaid can heal himself in this upcoming 2025 movie. And the directors confirmed for me:
No, no. That is not a part of this condition. And honestly, that's part of the fun of the movie, is seeing his level of deterioration increase after each fight, Because obviously, the action of the movie all takes place within a single day. And so there is no time. Like any good action movie, there's a patch up scene here or there. But for the most part, there's not enough time for anything to heal. It's a unique ticking clock for an action movie.
Another big reason why I’m excited for Novocaine is the presence of Amber Midthunder, a standout from the excellent Predator prequel Prey who should continue her career ascension as an actress in this movie. The Novocaine directors promise that we will see new sides of Midthunder’s ability in this movie, so we will just wait until March 14 to see what this movie has in store.
