The first trailer for Knights of Badassdom is the definition of a nerd haven. Starring Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn, and Peter Dinklage, the film is about Joe (Kwanten), whose friends (Zahn and Dinklage) force him to go LARPing with them, when they accidentally summon an actual evil succubus.
Just in case you’re too cool to know, LARP stands for “live action role playing,” as in when people dress up in medieval-style costumes and fight with fake swords. It’s significantly popular on college campuses, and it’s about time somebody made a movie about this hilarious concept.
LARPing is nerdy enough, but the leads in Knights of Badassdom make it even more appealing to us geeks. Kwanten stars in the incredibly popular show True Blood, Dinklage just got an Emmy nomination for the medieval/fantasy show Game of Thrones, and even Danny Pudi, who plays the pop culture-obsessed Abed in Community, makes an appearance.
Personally, I’m most excited for Ryan Kwanten. He’s fantastic on True Blood, playing Jason Stackhouse, a country-bumpkin player with a heart of gold. He might even have the best accent on the show. Clearly – he could hold his own in a film as the lead, and he’s certainly in the right kind of shape to do an action pic.
From what we can tell, Knights of Badassdom looks genuinely unique, pretty funny, and even slightly gory and scary. If it’s not yet on your radar, you may want to check out the trailer below.
In this humorous fantasy adventure from IndieVest Pictures, Joe (Ryan Kwanten) is a heavy metal rocker who’s just gone through a painful breakup with his girlfriend, Beth (Margarita Levieva). His concerned roommates (Steve Zahn, Peter Dinklage) kidnap him to their LARP (Live Action Role Playing) gathering, where he enters a realm of fantasy escapism in which pretend knights, elves, and barbarians clash with foam weaponry on a mock battlefield. When Joe’s “sorcerer” roommate (Zahn) inadvertently summons a deadly succubus that takes Beth’s seductive form, bloody reality crashes down upon their fantasy world. Once LARPers start to turn up dead, the make-believe wizards and warriors must become the real life heroes they have been pretending to be in order to conquer the evil that has been unleashed.