With 2012 being the year of the superhero movie, with blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Avengers at the local multiplex, Vancouver screenwriter Arne Olsen is going to launch Canada into the genre by turning Richard Comely’s Captain Canuck comic book franchise into a live action movie for Minds Eye Entertainment.

Olsen was chosen for the job based on his Hollywood experience.

He labored in the trenches in Los Angeles for 15 years as a genre film writer, penning thrillers and action movies like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.

Olsen told Playback not to expect a super-hero roller coaster ride as he brings Canada’s iconic masked crusader to the big screen.

Instead, look to Carl Bessai’s Repeaters, a 2012 Canadian thriller about three young people caught up in an impossible time labyrinth, for a clue on what to expect from Captain Canuck.

“We’re shying away from doing those mega-cartoon-y, comic book-y rock’em sock’em fight scenes. It will be more fast-paced story-telling,” Olsen said, mindful that action-packed thrill rides from the Hollywood studios cost big bucks to make.

Captain Canuck, by contrast to Hollywood’s super-hero pics, will be made in Canada, to which Olsen returned after his Hollywood years, armed with studio system knowledge and contacts.

That in turn allows Olsen to do the big commercial script with international sales potential, and yet make it a Canadian property.

The irony is Olsen got the Captain Canuck gig because of his Hollywood experience, but might not have had he not had a chance meeting in Toronto with David Cormican, Minds Eye Entertainment’s executive in charge of development.

“It’s better to be in Canada. I’m a bigger fish in a small pond. The Captain Canuck thing wouldn’t have come my way if I’d been in Los Angeles,” he said.