Ashley Kate Adams has been penning her forthcoming film Boy Hero over the past three years. Though still in the early stages, the University of Cincinnati alum — now based in New York — recently returned to the Queen City to solidify plans for the period drama to be filmed here later this year.
Set at the height of the banned books era in the United States, it follows the comic book hearings of 1954 through the story of a “revolutionary librarian” named Rae Lee who forges “an unlikely friendship with a newly-arrived student.” Together they form a comic book club for kids, which soon comes under threat in the heat of the national controversy. And so they take their case to New York City’s Senate floor.
If it’s giving you Matilda vibes — Miss Honey, anyone? — you’d be right. The Roald Dahl childhood classic served as inspiration for the flick. Adams will step into the role of Rae Lee, a character for which she drew inspiration from teachers in her own life.
The idea for Boy Hero first spawned out of seeing a panel at New York Comic Con in 2014. Carol Tilley, a scholar, professor and, yes, librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, spoke about how librarians “saved” comic books in the 1950s.
But it was one man who nearly tore the whole world down: psychiatrist Fredric Wertham. In the Golden Era of Comics (1938-1950), practically everyone — especially kids — was reading comic books. With the publication of his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent, he claimed that comic books were a dangerous form of literature that was leading youth to juvenile delinquency. Coupled with the trial and the era of McCarthyism, it spelled bad news for a once booming industry.
“I was just really moved by (Tilley’s speech),” Adams says. “It seemed very theatrical to me and there was this fact that said during this trial, 217 letters were written into the Senate to try and save comic books… I just felt, ‘Wouldn’t that be cool if I theatricalized that?’”
Tilley shared tapes from the trial with Adams. In the third act, much of what is said in the courtroom is pulled straight from the transcripts. Adams swapped letters with kids literally marching up to the Senate floor to read speeches about the impact of comic books in their own lives.
Another integral character is Mark, the aforementioned student with whom Rae Lee forms a bond. In the film, the boy, who is autistic, gains confidence through reading comics.
Though still in the early stages, Adams says the film’s script, the first feature-length flick she has written, has been completed and edited. Along with her own production company, AKA Productions, the project is attached to Zachary Spicer of Pigasus Pictures (Bloomington, Indiana) and the Queen City’s own Aymie Majerski, who Adams says was her first female-producing mentor.
“I feel like (the film) has the ability to have some really important conversations,” Adams says. “And that’s why I love making movies like this — you have to find something that you’re passionate about in order to talk about (societal issues).”
Something else Adams was intentional about? Almost everyone “above the line” is a woman. Along with Majerski and Adams herself, Laury Christensen of Louisville, Kentucky is on deck as a line producer and Ally Beans of Eisenberg/Beans is onboard as a co-producer and casting director. Adams says that Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati’s D. Lynn Meyers will do local casting.
Having that representation is “unbelievably” important to Adams. Women, she says, have to be represented both as leaders and storytellers in the entertainment industry at large. As a recent example, she notes that she was moved by director Greta Gerwig’s “brilliant and beautifully executed” film Little Women.
“There is something about the way that we communicate that needs to be seen by the general public,” Adams says, “because more than half of people buying movie tickets are women.”
Though the story carries the name Boy Hero, it’s told through Rae Lee’s perspective, starting from the moment Mark first comes to town all the way to their march to the Senate. As an educator herself, Adams says the inspiration for the boy came from a child she works with in New York.
Though exact dates are to be announced, Adams says they hope to film in Greater Cincinnati this summer/fall and release Boy Hero in late 2020 or early 2021.
In an era where superheroes are still pulling big numbers at the box office, the historical backdrop of Boy Hero serves as a pocket of history that has mostly been unexplored in the world of film.
As Adams poses: “If you go to the movies, and two of the 10 films are these blockbuster comic book hits, wouldn’t the public want to see how we got there?”
This article appears in Jan 22 – Feb 4, 2020.
