In the old days, it used to be that an actor who Hollywood had deemed past his or her prime would be relegated to television or low-budget superhero movies. It’s funny how far we’ve come. Nowadays, both television and superheroes are big business, and actors in the final third of their career are one more step removed, playing the once-famous people who used to be in television or low-budget superhero movies.

That’s what brings a powerhouse actor like John Malkovich to Supercon, a new movie about the talented people who spend their days signing autographs and posing for photos. According to Variety, Supercon follows a group of second-tier actors and comic book writers who are regulars on the convention circuit. When the group gets tired of their has-been status, they put together a scheme to rob one of the biggest conventions and put their enemies on the convention circuit in their place.

All kidding aside, the premise of Supercon sounds like a cross between Ocean’s 11 and Galaxy Quest, with plenty of room for examination of the Comic-Con culture and the type of celebrities whose fame comes from something they made decades ago. John Malkovich in particular seems like a perfect fit for the type of character Alan Rickman played in Galaxy Quest: an actor’s actor who watched his career be pigeon-holed by his turn in a blockbuster superhero movie. If Malkovich is game for the kind of scenery chewing comedy that he’s demonstrated in movies like Burn After Reading and Red, this could be the beginning of something special.

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