POPSTAR- Jim Daynes is a nuclear physicist, whose laboratory does experimental work for the Military. During an inspection of the laboratory, Jim finds one of the inspectors, Colonel David Jenkins, dangerously close to an experimental model of a top-secret Nuclear Bio-Regenerator. During the confrontation, both men fall into the machine, which Colonel Jenkins had turned on, and are freakishly mutated by the machine, their cells combined with the contents of an unpopped bag of popcorn that Jim Daynes had just gotten from a vending machine in the lunch room. Waking in the base hospital, Jim discovers that his body has been transformed into popcorn. The only thing left of what once was Jim Daynes is his piercing blue eyes. Jim, however, learns that his new form has given him strange explosive “popping” powers. By learning to control the explosive pops of his light-weight popcorn body, Jim can propel himself through the air and can increase his strength. Jim’s popcorn body also is able to withhold the nuclear heat from the machine, which he is able to release through his eyes as “heat vision”. Jim’s military liaison, Sergeant Carl Custarde, convinces Jim to use his new look and powers to inspire and aid his country. Carl is convinced that this fateful accident might make Jim a national celebrity, a real “Pop-star”!
POPSTAR was originally the idea of filmmaker Scott Glazer, who called me in to develop the concept and the characters.
COLONEL KERNEL- Colonel David Jenkins is a military career man, whose ego and attitude has always been his worst enemy, preventing him from getting many promotions and prime assignments, though, according to Jenkins, his problem is that he has always been the victim of others’ jealousy. Now he suffers the supreme indignity, babysitting a snot-nosed, young scientist, Jim Daynes, who is the High Command’s new “wonder-boy”. Jenkins is sure that he was assigned to oversee Daynes’ laboratory to keep him from competing with other officers for higher, more prestigious assignments. His resentment fanned the flames of hatred for the young scientist he was assigned to. Jenkins became consumed with thoughts of revenge against the young scientist. Perhaps he could sell Daynes’ ideas to a foreign country, enabling him to discredit Daynes and profit from him at the same time, or he could sabotage Daynes’ projects, discrediting Daynes in the eyes of the High Command and ending this interminable assignment. This is what is going through Jenkins’ mind that fateful day of the accident, when he and Daynes fall into the experimental nuclear Bio-Regenerator, freakishly transforming them forever. Ironically, where Daynes’ body is transformed to popped popcorn, Jenkins is mutated to unpopped popcorn, a human kernel. Unfortunately, just as Daynes’ transformation yields strange powers, so does Jenkins’. The energy in a kernel, which is released when a piece of popcorn is popped, is held in the human kernel, dramatically increasing his density and power. The accident increases Jenkins hatred of Daynes to a whole new personal level, but also provides him with a whole new power with which to destroy him. Dubbing himself “Colonel Kernel”, Jenkins vows to destroy Pop-star and all he stands for. The Colonel even manages to use pieces of blueprints, which he confiscated from Daynes’ lab, to build his own Bio-Regenerator and create his own freakish army to set against Pop-star.
The villain of the piece. Bad guys may be crazy, but this guy's a real NUT.
TOOSCOOPS- Sergeant Carl Custarde became Jim Daynes most trusted friend and ardent supporter from the time that he was assigned as the young scientist’s military liaison. The good-natured Carl is better known to everyone on the base as “Custard”, because of his insatiable love of ice-cream and his hefty size. Carl is inspired by his friend’s heroic new identity and vows to help him in any way that he can. Late one night, Carl sneaks down to the lab and, armed with two gallons of his favorite vanilla-chocolate-strawberry ice cream, enters the Bio-Regenerator. He emerges as Tooscoops, the I-Scream Man. Carl learns that the nuclear fission of the Bio-Regenerator has intensified the cold in his ice cream body, enabling him to maintain its consistency under only the most extreme heat. Carl and Jim invent the Cryomorphic Adaptor out of Carl’s ice cream scoop as a formidable weapon for the ice cream man. The Adaptor is able to channel the cold of the ice cream man’s body through the scoop, either as cold rays or ice weapons. Tooscoops also creates his own shuriken, made from wooden ice cream spoons, for his arsenal against crime. Tooscoops makes such an impression on the public that the Freezy-Pants Ice Cream Company donates one of their ice cream trucks to Tooscoops for his noble crusade. Carl and Jim adapt the truck to be their combination assault vehicle and mobile lab.
SHELLY, THE PEANUT GIRL- Pvt. Michele McKay is Colonel Jenkins long-suffering secretary. Meek and painfully shy, Pvt. McKay’s few friends have desperately been trying to help her “come out of her shell” to no avail. For months, Pvt. McKay has been content with secretly adoring her boss, despite his cold, cruel treatment of her. Soon after the fateful accident which transformed him into Colonel Kernel and before many were aware of what had transpired, Colonel Jenkins suffers pangs of alienation and considers creating a consort to fit his new persona. His thoughts drift to Pvt. McKay. Jenkins reasons that Michele McKay would be the perfect subject: she is pleasant-looking; she is reclusive and has no close family or friends; and she’d be most compliant, knowing full well of her crush on him. Jenkins sends Pvt. McKay a confidential message to the office to meet him at the military lab, requesting her help on some top-secret project. When Pvt. McKay arrives at the lab, Jenkins calls to her from the shadows to retrieve a file he had left in one of the machines, the infamous Bio-Regenerator. In the Bio-Regenerator, Jenkins leaves a file for McKay to retrieve and a peanut for the success of the experiment. Jenkins thought a peanut would be a poetic choice for McKay’s transformation, since the mousey secretary was already said to be in a “shell “. As soon as Pvt. McKay unwittingly enters the machine, Jenkins presses the button to close the door and turns the machine on. A stunned Jenkins is awed at Pvt. Mckay’s remarkable transformation, for, where once stood a mousey girl, now stands a vital and vibrant young woman, her head and limbs breaking out of her shapely peanut shell torso. When Colonel Kernel reveals himself and his plan to his new creation, Pvt. McKay is repulsed and blindly runs out of the lab and across the base, panic-stricken. News quickly reaches Popstar of a new creature running loose on the base. Popstar finally corners the Peanut-girl and succeeds in calming her. After hearing of Popstar’s similar plight and of his heroic intentions, Pvt. McKay, re-christening herself “Shelly”, offers to join Popstar to stop the despicable Colonel Kernel and others of his ilk. Shelly learns that, in her new form, she can release a peanut oil from her hands, which can be used as a healing ointment.
DOUGH-NUTZ, THE HOLE-Y TERROR- Joey Gavonne is a cheap strong-arm man. All brawn and no brains, Joey would hire out to anyone with the money to pay. Joey earned the nickname “Joey Bag-O-Donuts” from the ever-present comfort food he’d either have in his hand or in his mouth. Joey has the distinction of being the first “soldier” in the army of Colonel Kernel. The Colonel wanted a strong-arm man to use against his hated enemy, Popstar, and Joey had all the qualifications, brawn and gullibility. Turning his nickname into a reality, the transformation pushes the already unstable Joey over the edge. Hot-headed and unpredictable, Dough-nutz is sometimes even difficult for the Colonel to control. Along with his giant size and great strength, Dough-nutz can also shoot his sprinkles out of his hands like candy bullets.
FORMAGGIO, THE CHEESE WHIZ- The accident on the military base which created Popstar and Colonel Kernel is soon picked up by the media. As Popstar grows in fame, the Colonel grows in notoriety. As the Colonel siiks out soldiers for his “Gourmet Guerillas”, he is surprised that someone would seek him out. Local mob boss Patsy Provolone learns about Colonel Kernel from Dough-nutz, who worked for Provolone as a strong-arm man before his transformation. Provolone sees this as a great new racket and puts the word out to the Colonel that he wants in. The Colonel is skeptical, but decides that Provolone’s brains and savvy would make him worth the risk. Armed with his favorite cheese wheel, Provolone eagerly enters the Bio-Regenerator and exits as the lethal walking, thinking human cheese wheel, Formaggio, the cheese whiz. Besides the formidable power of his great size and diabolical mind, Formaggio has the power to split his body into many sentient slices, carrying around his own army of hit-men with him at all times
MAC N. SLEEZE- Mack Noodleman is a tough-guy wannabe, without much success. Mack was thrown out of a gang he belonged to because he couldn’t take part in a turf war due to a splinter he got from the wooden bat he was carrying. Mack tried shoplifting, but was arrested when he tried to exchange what he had stolen, because the clothes didn’t fit. Mack tried carjacking, but was caught trying to gas up down the block using his victim’s credit card. Mack tried shaving his head and growing a full beard to look more “badass”, but everyone he met sniggered at him because they said his head looked like it was on upside down. Mack is despondent, until he sees news reports of Colonel Kernel and his Gourmet Guerillas. Now THAT is “badass”! Mack grabs the first box he could from his kitchen cabinet and sneaks into the Colonel’s laboratory headquarters and manages to throw himself into the Bio-Regenerator before anyone could stop him. What emerges from the Bio-Regenerator is no longer Mack Noodleman, but a disgusting, sloppy human blob of macaroni and cheese. The creature that was once Mack Noodleman oozes across the floor, leaving a trail of hot cheese, like some freakish slug. The Colonel stares at the concoction before him in shock, but, when Mack sees his reflection in the polished glass of the lab equipment, he is…ecstatic! He is finally the vile and repulsive creature he had always dreamed of being. The Colonel is so impressed with Mack’s attitude and devotion to his cause that the Colonel agrees to take him on as one of his soldiers. Rather than have Mack ooze around, the Colonel creates a small assault vehicle for him. Mack is able to propel himself in the vehicle by shooting hot cheese out of a noodle pipe in the back. Mack is also able to shoot his hot cheese from a noodle cannon that the Colonel added to the front of the car. Mac N. Sleeze, which he now calls himself, can shoot his hot cheese at his victims through his noodle fingers as well. Though a loose cannon, Mac N. Sleeze proves to be one of the Colonel’s most formidable allies.
