If Toronto were to have a hometown superhero, smart money might bet on a litter-busting mayor or a handgun-confiscating community organizer.

Well, thanks to Sidekick, an independent film that may have a second life as a Hollywood remake, the city finally has its own superhero. But he's no do-gooder -- he's a Bay Street salesman who likes his beer and uses a pool cue to liftwomen's skirts.

Our "hero," Victory Man, is the creation of screenwriter Michael Sparaga, who wrote and produced the comedy. Directed by Blake Van de Graaf, Sidekick tells the story of Norman, a comic book-loving computer nerd in the financial district. One day, spying superhero potential in a co-worker, Victor, Norman offers to act as his sidekick and turn him into a full-fledged crusader -- with mixed results.

Mr. Sparaga made the film for $35,000, and the only paid performer was U.S. actor Daniel Baldwin (yes, a Baldwin brother). He was lured with the against-type role of Chuck, a comic-bookstore owner, and was paid in cash, which Mr. Sparaga says he delivered in a brown paper bag.

Scenes were either filmed on the street or in the film editor's condo at Bathurst and King. And Mr. Sparaga negotiated other hometown discounts. He persuaded Footsteps Studios to do the foley -- the process by which sounds like footsteps and clothing rustles are added to the soundtrack -- for less than its usual $50,000-plus bill by pointing out that they might never again have the chance to work on a Canadian superhero movie.

The story may have the flavour of a mainstream American movie, but the CN Tower looms in the background -- along with the financial towers at King and Bay, Cloud Garden Park near the Hudson's Bay Company downtown and the public square outside Metro Hall. There's a long shot of the Royal York subway station, and the ubiquitous rattle and screech of TTC streetcars.

Mr. Sparaga, who grew up in Niagara Falls, wanted Sidekick to remain true to the city streets, but he didn't want it to hit audiences over the head with its Torontonia.

"I'm not going to have anyone say the word Toronto. I'm not going to have anyone say 'eh,' " he remembers thinking. "I'm just going to show what's magical here."

So far, the setting seems to have been lost on American audiences.

When the film played at the San Francisco Indie Filmfest, its Canadian-ness was ignored by the San Francisco Examiner, which recommended the flick. In a Q&A after the screening, however, audiences reportedly asked what a bag of milk was. (It comes in cartons down south.)

Now the film has been optioned by Focus Features, the production company behind Brokeback Mountain, and under its direction Mr. Sparaga has rewritten the script and set it in New York.

Rather than feeling like he's sold out his city, though, Mr. Sparaga sees a parallel between his two scripts and the relationship between the two cities.

"Toronto, in a lot of ways, is the sidekick to the bigger cities in the States," he says.

And it's one that he has stood up for. When the offer first came in to option his story, Focus Features asked Mr. Sparaga to bury the original Sidekick production. He walked away from the deal.

They finally reached an agreement when the writer explained that his Toronto movie could never be competition for a big-budget remake -- allowing his original ode to this city to play sidekick to a future Hollywood mega-spectacle.