Michael Sparaga's superhero movie Sidekick was greenlit the day the Royal Bank approved him for a $10,000 line of credit. "I've always thought the opening credits should read: Royal Bank in co-operation with Visa, Master Card and American Express inadvertently present ..." he says. "But it turns out you can't use those terms as freely as you might think."

For an indie production with a budget of $35,000, Sidekick is flying high. Last month it won the people's choice award at the Canadian Filmmakers Festival in Toronto, and tomorrow the movie screens at the Oxford Theatre in Halifax, the first stop on an eight-city tour that reaches Vancouver on May 1. Focus Features, the company behind Brokeback Mountain, is working with Sparaga on a possible big-budget remake.

But writer/producer Sparaga couldn't be happier with the current version, which director Blake Van de Graaf calls "an American genre picture with a Canadian sensibility." Sidekick is, like Spider-Man, about someone honing his superpower to fighting form. Like Superman, it features a plucky female go-getter. But like nothing else, it's told from the point of view of the sidekick, a squeaky-voiced comic-book fan played by Perry Mucci. And it's recognizably Canadian: A reference to a bag of milk would flummox American viewers.

Sparaga and Van de Graaf are an unlikely (but dynamic) duo. The 34-year-old
director is a "roughneck, hockey-playing, comic-book kind of guy," while Sparaga, who turns 33 this month, says he's a "musical-loving, movie-watching Leafs fan."

Sidekick tells how Norman (Mucci) discovers his co-worker Victor (David Ingram) has a slight telekinetic power, and becomes his mentor and sidekick -- think Alfred meets Robin. Blake emphasizes that story came before sizzle.

CREDIT: Peter J. Thompson, National Post
Writer and producer Michael Sparaga, left, of the movie Sidekick -- it's a superhero flick made on a shoestring budget -- and director Blake Van de Graaf in late March.

"In Superman, you don't see Christopher Reeve in the cape flying until 53 minutes into the movie. It was all about telling who this guy is so by the time he flies you believe a man can fly."

The filmmakers met at university. "We both had scholarships to go to York," says Van de Graaf, "me for production and Michael for screenwriting, and I think they stuck us in the same room figuring we would get along."

Sparaga's first feature was 1996's Loaded Deck, which taught him the dangers of distributors whose trademarks are kickboxing and nudity. After the first and only screening, he was told, "'Everyone is laughing at this movie, you have to do lots of cuts.' I'm like, 'It's a comedy.' "

That may explain why Sparaga drove a hard bargain with Focus, which had wanted to prevent anyone from seeing Sidekick. Under the deal, the studio can buy the rights if it makes its own version. But neither wanted to shelve the work of Mucci, Ingram and the rest of the cast. "This is a calling card film for everyone," says Van de Graaf. They're not getting features in Toronto, they're getting Tide commercials."

Looking forward, Sparaga has written a romantic comedy called In the Stars, about a man who rewrites his ex-girlfriend's horoscope to win her back. Van de Graaf has the rights to The Mysterium, a novel by Eric McCormack. For now, however, they have their hands full getting the word out about Sidekick.

They're also using their tour to interview Canadian filmmakers and filmgoers about the industry: Gary Burns, Don McKellar, Bruce McDonald and others. "When I started talking to people about this, everybody's got something to say," says Sparaga. In addition to making a documentary, he says, "I can then show Telefilm Canada my script about Bigfoot because people across Canada said they wanted a movie about Bigfoot."

He grins. "I'm going to try to spend your tax dollars wisely."