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“First off, this has nothing to do with the Green Arrow project!” says Nelson, who felt that needed clearing up, since the prison setting and title echo the stuck-in-development superhero movie SUPER MAX. “That said, we wanted to write a movie with everything we like about the genre in it. Something we would want to see. And we wanted to have fun with a big concept we knew would work. Inspiration comes from the strangest places for me; sometimes it’s a film totally unrelated to the genre, news or interests, and a lot of times I dream complete stories and ideas. Some of it came from kicking ideas around as we were discussing a different script we were working on at the time. That, and I like prison and monster movies. Seemed like a logical fit.”

Rouse adds, “Chris and I sit around all the time and say to each other, ‘What if…?’ or ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if…?’ and then one day, this idea just sort of fell out onto the table. It was a concept we kept coming back to, and finally one day, we just started fleshing it out.”

Influenced by ’70s classics like THE FRENCH CONNECTION, MARATHON MAN, ALIEN and a whole lot of John Carpenter, the two writers are clear that they want SUPERMAX to be, above all, fun. “Dark, rich, cavernous, heartbreaking and relentless,” Nelson elaborates, and Rouse adds, “We were going for raw, rough and real. I hope the finished product will be a fast and fun ride, like the first season of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE when Mr. Edwards still had an edge to him. We’ll have to see where it ends up.”

As we all know, a film can change a lot from script to screen, yet while SUPERMAX is being produced by Todd Garner—a man with a host of considerably lighter projects (like ARE WE DONE YET? and PAUL BLART: MALL COP) on his résumé, the scribes believe their creatures and scares will be fully realized. “It’s definitely not being pushed toward the lighthearted side,” Nelson assures. “We’re leaning toward grisly fun—fun being the key word. We take the story and characters seriously, though. We don’t want to wink at the audience. You walk into a ‘prison monster movie’ and you’re going to want to see some dark business. I believe we’re all on the same page with this project, and we’re very excited about its potential.”

Rouse echoes the sentiment: “I’m not going to answer for Todd, but I get the feeling he wants to make the movie we want to make, the one that we wrote. And if anything, I believe he wants to turn it up a bit more just like we do.”

Since SUPERMAX has the potential to become a pretty sizably budgeted flick, there’s the possibility that its producers will want to turn it into a CGI party, but both its creators are all for the makeup-and-suits approach. “I love practical effects!” Nelson says—not surprisingly, given his background. “I know it’s not cost-efficient in some cases, and with all the characters we have in this along with what they do, it’s going to be a challenge. Ideally, using physical effects augmented with digital would be the best way to go. I want to feel these ‘things’ are in the room interacting with the people.”

“I like knowing there’s someone inside the makeup,” Rouse says. “There’s something a bit scarier about that. As great and amazing as digital is, there’s always a little something missing that you can’t quite put your finger on. If it’s dinosaurs or some big-ass spaceship, have at it, but when it comes to creatures and monsters, please throw somebody in the suit.”

What will make for interesting speculation in the coming months is just who will helm the creature feature, since Nelson and Rouse aren’t taking the reins. “The thought of directing SUPERMAX never entered my mind,” the latter admits. “Of course, when you’re writing something, you always see the way you think it should look or how it should be shot. But from the beginning, this was always just about, ‘Hey, Chris, let’s sit down and try to write a big summer movie that we would want to see.’ ”

“I never considered it,” Nelson adds. “I knew it was too big for someone who hasn’t directed anything yet. We knew it would be something a skilled action/genre director with great storytelling skills should handle. It’s got to have heart, too. Movies are useless without that. I think Mitch could do it—he has experience and a great eye. I would love to direct at some point and will, I hope. But I want to start out with something easier than this—maybe one of our or my other scripts.”

Obviously, SUPERMAX is still in its very early stages, so there’s a long road to the screen ahead of it, but things are looking pretty awesome so far. “Good storytelling with rich characters and heart is what I love,” Nelson concludes. “And if you can make it visually stunning within that context, you’ve got something that will, at the very least, entertain and make people happy they went. We’re looking forward to giving more information out when we can; this is going to be a blast!” Keep checking back at Fango for more on SUPERMAX as it progresses.