SPECIAL, an offbeat dark comedy, follows the journey of Les Franken played by Michael Rapaport (Hitch, Grilled) as a superhero for our chemically enhanced time.
Les Franken, a lonely parking enforcement officer who enjoys reading comic books, decides to take part in a clinical trial for a new and exciting antidepressant called 'Special'. An unexpected side effect of the drug renders him with superpowers - or so he thinks. While his doctor dismisses the drug's side effects as an adverse psychological reaction to the medication, Les takes his cue from the comics he reads and embraces his newfound “powers” and quits his job to devote his life to fighting evil, real or imagined.
Les is an every day kind of superhero, the apparently gifted and yet disturbed human who wishes to save the world - the type of superhero which inspired thousands of modern graphic novels and comic books, and which has been shunned by Hollywood's generic plethora of Marvel and DC comic remakes.
Writers Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore based some of the characters on friends from their youth and use their experiences of drug use, which include the use of anti-depressant medication, in the months leading up to production.
