Chris Colfer Strikes Us With New Film and Book

"At what grade do we stop believing in ourselves?" asks Chris Colfer in his starring role in the coming-of-age indie comedy Struck By Lightning, which made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival this past April and as the closing night film at Outfest in July. Colfer, as previously reported by Out, is not only starring, but also wrote and produced it. Colfer is clearly not one to stop believing in himself and his goals, mirrored by his character of Carson Philips.

The film is a flashback story of the last weeks Carson's life, whom is shown as a determined teenage dreamer that wants bigger things than his small town could offer. With a Juno wit and a Mean Girls like style, we see how the unpopular high school senior and his bestie Malerie (played by hilarious Rebel Wilson of Bridesmaids) try to achieve his journalistic goals to get into Northwestern, and become a renown writer and an editor for The New Yorker.

One of their main ploys involves a humorous blackmail scheme of the popular kids, but the film has much more depth as visible by the trailer. Others in cast include Allison Janney (The West Wing, Juno), Dermot Mulroney (The Wedding Date, New Girl), Angela Kinsey (The Office), and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men). The film is directed by Brian Dannelly (Saved!).

Struck By Lightning is set to be released at the end of this year on December 19 nationwide on iTunes and On Demand, and will be in select theaters starting January 11, 2013, in New York, Los Angeles, and several other major cities. The Golden Globe-winning Glee star will also release a book extension of the film on November 20 (Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal; $17.99), as stated by Billboard. This is not Colfer's first book, his children's book The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Children's Chapter Books bestseller list.