Second Nature
Written by Michael Cross, JC Ford, Edi Zanidache
Directed by Michael Cross
Starring Collette Wolfe, Sam Huntington, Carollani Sandberg, Carolyn Cox, Riley Shanahan
80 Minutes
Cross Films | Mirror Images LTD
Release date: November 10, 2016 (Napa Valley Film Festival)

In the small town of Louisburg, WA, Mayor Gleason is having a drunken joyride with his mistress, complete with bonus fellatio and some not so bonus driving right off a cliff. This leaves his position open for election.

Queue Bret and Amanda, who both decide to run for Mayor. Bret and Amanda are not a couple. They were childhood political rivals where he won (of course), and now they work together (he’s the boss, of course). They’re initially presented as stereotypes of their gender — she does yoga and listens to affirmation audio, while he watches sports while having sex — but then things go haywire after they each make a wish about how men and women should act. This is the set-up for Michael Cross‘s gender-swapping political comedy Second Nature, starring Sam Huntington (Sully, Superman Returns, Detroit Rock City) and Collette Wolfe (You’re the Worst, Hot Tub Time Machine).

Long-time director Michael Cross will see the world premiere this week of his feature debut with the gender-swapping political comedy Second Nature. The film stars Collette Wolfe (Hot Tub Time Machine) and Sam Huntington (Superman Returns, Detroit Rock City) as small-town mayoral campaign rivals whose lives are turned upside down after they’re magically transported to a mirrored reality where gender roles are reversed and women are in power. It’s not your typical body-swap comedy, but it definitely deserves an honored place in the subgenre.

We got a chance to talk to Cross about his inspiration for the long-gestating movie, a project funded through Kickstarter; what it was like to film it in his hometown, and to direct his famous photographer cat; how he pulled off such a well-crafted comedy on a limited budget and schedule; what the world would be like if women ruled, and much more.

The director has also given us an exclusive first-look at a pertinent clip from Second Nature, which you can watch here below at the end of the interview.

Body-swapping comedies have been around for decades (case in point: Vice Versa, The Change-Up, Dream a Little Dream, etc.), but filmmaker Michael Cross, a graduate of the prestigious USC School of Cinematic Arts – the alma mater of Hollywood heavyweights such as Ron Howard and John Singleton – has an imaginative take on the genre in which instead of the lead characters swapping bodies, gender roles are reversed. He would like to turn this idea into a feature film, and he needs your help to make it happen!

Cross, a longtime director and editor of short films and commercials, is preparing to make his feature directorial debut with the comedy Second Nature, and he has opened a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $55,000 he requires to get it made. So far, the campaign has raised over $8,000 with a little over three weeks left to go.

Continue below for more on the movie and to watch the Kickstarter video.