Hollywood - February 17th, 2023 - A ground-breaking line of digital collectibles was launched today to help fund the Supercrip feature film that is designed to raise awareness about the dearth of Hollywood roles for actors and actresses with disabilities. The feature film stars Tobias Forrest, a talented actor and C5 quadriplegic, who has made his mark in Hollywood despite the fact that the deck is stacked against him. Supercrip tells the story of a PWD (person with a disability) who while working his “waitressing job” as an Uber driver, picks up a self-centered movie star. When the movie star goes up for the Academy Award role of a lifetime, he hires Toby (without telling Toby) to train him on how best to be disabled. Ultimately it is Toby, a truly disabled person, and the movie star who compete for the same role.
"I have been following Toby’s career for a while. He was an extra in my film Nobel Son with Alan Rickman," says Randall Miller (writer/director of Bottle Shock and CBGB).
“Randy cast me in Nobel Son and that sort of started things,” adds Tobias Forrest (Queen Sugar, How to Get Away with Murder, Wisdom of the Crowd). “Then about a year and a half ago, he cast me as the head judge in Coffee Wars — I play the main coffee barista judge at the World Barista Championship. As written, the disability had nothing to do with the part, and that’s the way it should be.”
"Approximately 26% of the population has some form of disability," says Randall, "while fewer than 1% of movie and TV roles are given to PWDs. You may not realize this, but as Toby says: 80% of the public will eventually become part of the disabled community, so isn’t about time they were represented correctly in Hollywood? With Supercrip we are flipping the switch. And concurrently with the NFTs, we are doing the same thing.”
"When I heard the idea, I was quite taken with it. It spoke to me,” adds co-founder in the NFT project Steve MacKeon, CEO of MacNerd and MacGuyver Tech. “I am all about giving back. When I saw the art and heard what they were doing, I was all in.”
The technique and funding channel used to raise the financing for this film uses the latest of the new blockchain technologies to emerge, the NFT or Non-Fungible Token. In layman’s terms, a digital collectible that allows the buyer certain ownership rights to an image or product.
These digital collectibles are making a bold statement to Hollywood, depicting parody versions of famous movie characters. Instead of Ant Man, there’s Scant Man. Instead of Hannibal Lecter, there's Hannibal Lectric. Instead of Easy Rider, there’s Easy Roller. Each character in the collection bases its likeness on Supercrip's Tobias Forrest.
The collection has three tiers: Super-Powered, Stand Alone, and Franchise. Additionally, there are plans for two additional seasons of Supercrip characters, a racing game, and a Supercrip Coin. Along with Tobias Forrest, Randall Miller and Steve MacKeon, there’s illustrator/director Michael Davis (writer/director Shoot ‘Em Up and 8 Days A Week), and Jody Savin, the producer of Supercrip the film (writer/producer Bottle Shock, Nobel Son, Marilyn Hotchkiss, and CBGB).
In addition to fundraising for the film, NFT sales will support donations to organizations and non-profits within the disability space. These companies and foundations include ABILITYMagazine, Fodac, Ralph's Riders, Triumph Foundation, CinemAbility Foundation, abilityEntertainment, RespectAbility, Artists For Trauma, and Permobil.
Technology Consultancy MacNerd is minting and facilitating the NFT sale. The NFTs have varying levels of rarity and special details; the first run will be 5501 individually handcrafted GIFs digitally rendered by the Consultancy.
"This collection is wholly unique," says MacNerd CEO Steve McKeon. "Not only are these intricate pieces of animation, but they're also funding the film and raising awareness for thousands of artists underrepresented in TV and film."
More information on Supercrip Productions can be found here: https://supercrip.io
More information on MacNerd can be found here: https://macnerd.io
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