Imagine a movie that features Arnold Schwarzenegger on a dinosaur, giant mech battles, time travel, David Hasselhoff as a talking Lamborghini, Michael Fassbender with a mullet, and an all-out war against Adolf Hitler. Now imagine that movie never coming out. Both are difficult concepts to fathom, but each applies to Kung Fury: The Movie.
Written, directed, and starring David Sandberg, Kung Fury: The Movie (also referred to as Kung Fury 2) is a feature-length follow-up to a 2015 short film that you can watch on YouTube (or below). It’s a wild, tongue-in-cheek send-up of 1980s sci-fi action films that co-stars Jorma Taccone and David Hasselhoff. Based on that film’s success, a feature-length version was made that brought back Taccone and Hasselhoff, and added Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Fassbender, and Alexandra Shipp. However, a legal battle over the film’s visual effects has delayed it five years and counting.
Late last week, though, a 10-minute promo for the film leaked online and Variety confirmed with Sandberg that it was in fact genuine. “This was an internal promo video that was never supposed to be seen by the public,” Sandberg said in a statement. “I feel bad because it contains a bunch of plot points and temp VFX. I hope at least people can see the passion that we poured into the movie, the world deserves to see it as it was meant to be seen. This movie has been held hostage for the past five years but I promise to keep fighting for it and make sure this film gets the chance it truly deserves.”
The clip not only features all manner of batshit insanity, such as Schwarzenegger on the dinosaur, Fassbender shooting bullets to press keys on a typewriter, and so much more, but some presumably huge narrative spoilers such as character deaths and plot twists. So you understand why Sandberg would seemingly feel mixed about the leak.
But maybe this is Deadpool all over again. You literally can’t watch the 10-minute clip and not instantly want to see the movie. It’s simply not possible. So, maybe, by bringing further awareness to the project, something can be worked out to get Kung Fury: The Movie into the world. For now, here’s the original short film.
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