CONTOUR: Eric Jacobus And Dennis Ruel Set April Launch With Live Q&A Via YouTube For Hit Indie Martial Arts Flick
As announced in January, actor, stuntman and filmmaker Eric Jacobus is readying to launch the free online release of his 2006 martial arts comedy classic, Contour, beginning next month. The movie will premiere exclusively on Jacobus’s YouTube channel on April 19 at 7:00pm pacific standard time, with Jacobus joined by co-star Dennis Ruel in a live Q&A to celebrate the film’s twentieth anniversary since its 2004 production.
Contour follows the small-time criminal Lawrence (Law) Young, who moonlights as a crotchety San Francisco tour guide. Among Law’s latest guests is Alfonso de la Rosario, the prince of the obscure island nation of Uruvia, who informs Law of a hefty reward awaiting whomever recovers a missing (and very embarrassing) “private video” that belongs to his parents, the king and queen of Uruvia. Law sets out to recover the tape with the help of his criminal contacts, throwing Law and his tourists head first into the underbelly of San Francisco.
Shot on a shoestring budget of $5000 and fueled by nuts, protein bars and water, Contour was a banner moment for Jacobus and Ruel, drawing cult success as an indie feature for their production outlet, The Stunt People. The two not only starred, but also shared duties in choreography with Jacobus directing as well as action directing. What’s more is the caliber of production, in its framework affinity to Hong Kong-style action akin to the celebrated likes of Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen, dismissing the use of stunt doubles and wires while delivering fluid and fast-paced action to wow audiences.
![wp-17115612805298784371186352774907 - Film Combat Syndicate](https://filmcombatsyndicate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/wp-17115612805298784371186352774907.jpg)
Here are some official tidbits about Contour while we’re at it:
Production lasted nearly an entire year, with over 60 days alone dedicated to the final set piece; the budget for Contour was so low that most of the cast donned ski masks to perform as random thugs in each other’s fight scenes; and everyone sustained at least one serious injury during production. In today’s entertainment landscape, when high fidelity digital video and artificial intelligence make it difficult to know reality from fiction, Contour is a breath of fresh air. It’s as real as they come.
Jacobus has been making the rounds on his channel with a number of exclusive interviews and scintillating video essays deep-diving into action cinema in all its angles. Professionally, his credits partly include Netflix series “Altered Carbon,” Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You, Liu Fendou’s The Heart, and John Moore’s A Good Day To Die Hard, as well as 2010 indie actioner Dogs Of Chinatown, 2011’s Death Grip, and Vasan Bala’s 2020 Hindi action comedy fave out of TIFF, The Man Who Feels No Pain. On the shortfilm front, he’s also known for projects like the MTV audience fave, Undercut, and recent YouTube hits like Rope-A-Dope and Rope-A-Dope 2 also featuring Ruel, and Roger Yuan co-starrer, Blindsided. Jacobus is also the co-founding head of his own mo-cap studio, SuperAlloy Interactive with credits like Mortal Kombat 11, Mortal Kombat One, the God Of War franchise and Marvel’s The Avengers and Spider-Man to name a few.
As for the Q&A, Jacobus and Ruel will be taking questions from viewers, as well as hosting a Hong Kong action film trivia contest, a giveaway of Contour memorabilia AND autographed DVDs, as well as complain about the action film industry, and per the announcement “most likely insult more than a few people.” Sweet!
Subscribe to Jacobus’s YouTube channel and hit the bell to get the alert for the film’s premiere and Q&A to follow!
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!