'Superhero Alex: The Man with the Cape' premieres in Somerset

SOMERSET – It comes with the territory. If you're a superhero, you do a movie.

Alex Rogers, AKA Superhero Alex, makes his screen debut on Tuesday with the premier of “Superhero Alex: The Man with the Cape.” Ben Medeiros' low-budget (almost no-budget) film will be shown for the first time, this Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Somerset Berkley Regional High School's Performing Arts Center.

Nicknamed Superhero Alex for his courageous two-year battle against leukemia – he's now in remission – Rogers, 17, with Down syndrome, is scheduled to get literal red-carpet treatment for Tuesday night's show, which is actually a double premier. In what may be a first for the movie industry, “Superhero Alex: The Man with the Cape” premieres with its sequel, “Seventy Shove Street.”

Combined running time for the two mixed martial arts action films is an hour and 17 minutes, said Medeiros, 20, an MMA instructor who also makes brief commercials for postings on social media.

Admission is free.

How was the movie made?

Medeiros said the movies were shot 90 percent with an iPhone and 10 percent with drones. He said he was able to spice up the footage in post production.

The movies contain no dialogue. Medeiros wrote both scripts. It's action and word graphics and special effects and soundtrack music provided for free by YouTube's Fury Hearted Productions. “It's like a 30-minute movie video,” he said.

What is the Superhero Alex movie about?

Medeiros said “Superhero Alex” reflects the real Alex Silvia Rogers story – going from strong to weak and back to strong.

The two-year project started as simply a plan for a commercial Alex wanted to do, for merchandising purposes. He loves making money. In the commercial, he would have launched “Superhero Alex” t-shirts from a t-shirt cannon.

The non-profit Spectrum Empowerment Project, whose hirings are exclusively those on the autism spectrum and other atypically developing individuals, has made and marketed Superhero Alex apparel.

Medeiros has done video work for Don Lambert, Spectrum Empowerment's co-founder.

When Medeiros met Alex, he felt the need, the drive, to do something bigger than a brief commercial.

Who is in the cast of the movie?

To do so, he needed help. Much of the remaining cast and crew comes from the MMA world – Gillet Mixed Martial Arts in Tiverton, Lakeville MMA, Redseal MMA of Lakeville, and Fall River Police Athletic League Boxing. Xavier Cardona and Ian Lambert play especially key roles. “We turned a group of fighters into a production team,” said Medeiros, a Middleborough High School graduate.

In the movie, Alex performs fight scenes, some from a wheelchair. Medeiros doubles as the film's villain; he wanted to be in control of all the actual physical contact with Alex. ”I was nervous,” Medeiros said. “I advocate him doing his own fight scenes … I needed him in there.”

The videoing was done while Rogers was undergoing bone marrow treatments. The last of those planed treatments, a marrow sample draw, was set for Friday (May 26) at Dana Farber in Boston.

While the leukemia is in remission, Alex's mother Beth Rogers said her soon-to-be 18 year old (birthday July 2) faces other significant health challenges after all the chemotherapy and radiation. Due to an adrenal deficiency, his body does not produce needed steroids, requiring Beth to carry around what is essentially a steroid Epi pen. “Hopefully his glands will wake up,” she said.

Alex has gone blind in his left eye, because blood covers the lens. Blood vessels popped during bouts of violent retching caused by chemo. Beth said there remains hope sight can be restored. She said that issue will not be addressed until the fall. Due to extreme sunlight sensitivity, Alex, who has three siblings at home, must stay indoors from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. And he must cover up when he does go outside.

A low platelet count, Beth said, results in Alex sometimes feeling like he has a brutal case of the flu.

Through it all, Alex remains largely upbeat and, in many ways, a typical teenager.

On Thursday night, hours before his scheduled early-Friday departure for Dana Farber, he was up watching the Celtics win Game 5 against Miami. Beth said that when the Celtics struggle, as they did in the series first three games, Alex will sometimes just walk away from the television, disgusted.

“He's unbelievable. The kid is unbelievable,” Beth said. “It's like the flu times 10. He doesn't complain.”

On Tuesday, the doors at Somerset Berkley open at 6 p.m. Alex is scheduled to arrive at his school in a limousine. He returned to Somerset Berkley Regional High School in February and has been attending for two to three hours per school day.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Superhero Alex: The Man with the Cape movie premiering in Somerset