Tomorrow marks a week since the sad, untimely passing of larger-than-life wrestler/actor/general superstar ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper. While scores of fans have already taken to various social media platforms to express their condolences (mostly in the form of They Live homages), Deadline delivers news of a more substantial tribute to the titan’s memory. A new report reveals that ol’ Rowdy will make his final onscreen appearance in a rather unlikely capacity: as a supporting character in the Christian-minded film The Masked Saint.
Gunning for a January 8, 2016 release, the film revolves around Brett Granstaff as rural man-of-the-cloth Chris Samuels. His pastoral duties presumably leave him with a wealth of free time, and so Samuels draws on his past life as a professional wrestler to refashion himself as a nighttime vigilante crimefighter. Based off of the Chris Whaley’s very real experiences as a master of the ring and mouthpiece for the Lord (we’re pretty sure that third bit, with the masked superheroics, is fictional, but then again, the Masked Saint wouldn’t be a very good vigilante if we knew that for sure), The Masked Saint weds the excitement and passion of professional wrestling with the thrills of devout Christianity. Self-proclaimed god-fearing man Roddy Piper joins the cast in a tertiary role, as shady promoter Nicky Stone.
Distribution of this film will be handled by Freestyle Releasing, the company responsible for the dreadful cinematic chain e-mail known as God’s Not Dead. Audiences may fairly assume that the addition of the pure, untarnishable goodness of wrestling would preclude The Masked Saint from sinking to that film’s levels of abject badness. Until viewers know for sure, however, they may draw their own conclusions from the trailer, which you can watch above.
