KHMERICAN: Jimmy Chhiu Tackles Asian American Identity For New Crime Thriller Short
Help stunt professional Jimmy Chhiu crowdfund his newest shortfilm drama tackling Asian American identity in KHMERICAN.
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THE UNTOLD STORY OF ‘NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER’ Kickstarts Crowdfunding For The New Documentary
Oliver Harper is directing the documentary which explores the memorable East-meets-West action classic with help from cast, crew, fans and influencers alike.
FILIPINO KARATE KID: Isabel Lamer’s Martial Arts Drama Short Newds Your Help
Actress, writer and producer Isabel Lamers is on a mission to bring representation to the big screen with independent martial arts drama, Filipino Karate Kid. She has a Kickstarter campaign already underway for the project which went up a few weeks ago and thus, has about a few weeks left as of this write up. Half-Filipina Nia craves to belong ever since she left the Philippines as a teen. When she discovers a local Filipino martial arts gym, where as a Kickboxer she hopes to finally fit in, but not under the watch of queen pin gym-owner Angel who worked hard to be in the position she is now. With the help of outcast FMA fighter, Malic, Nia trains FMA to prove herself to Angel, as well as to herself that she is indeed “Filipino enough”. At the same time, her superficial wanna-be upper class mother tries everything to make […]
WILD ZERO 2: Crowdfunding For Cult Hit Punk Sci-Fi Action Horror Sequel Kicks Off In One Week!
Director Tetsuro Takeuchi’s 2000 cult hit thriller, Wild Zero, is finally getting a sequel with Wild Zero 2: The Strongest Blood Of Humanity, after several years of ramping up efforts to make the film a reality, global pandemics be damned. With an early-shot pilot promo taking off once more just in time for the film’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign launching March 10, the team is now putting the word out for fans to bookmark the page for reminders in time for the launch. Takeuchi announced the campaign officially at an event a few days ago with Wild Zero co-stars, celebrated rock band Guitar Wolf whose titular lead singer and frontman, Guitar Wolf, stars in the inaugural film, as well as the pilot promo, and the upcoming sequel. Director Tetsuro Takeuchi said there is strong interest from Wild Zero fans around the world for the sequel. Delayed due to covid19 we have […]
Watch DRAGON COP Now, And Help The Masebrothers Unleash DRAGON’S REVENGE!
Yup, it’s Friday. For fans of the good folks over at Masebrothers, it’s also Dragon Cop day as the newest Hong Kong action short homage is released to the masses from film duo Mathieu Caillière and Jeremy Vazzoli, otherwise known as YouTube creators, Masebrothers. Joined by the stunt stylings of Team Cascade 13, the project features Julien Phuong Le and Line Phé as two Hong Kong detectives about to break their latest case wide open when a drug deal goes awry, exposing their investigation and ensuing an all-out martial arts-infused fight for survival. The overall look serves well to the ends of Masebrothers per their brand which targets film fans fond of 80s and 90s action nostalgia, a fact that online music and record label NewRetroWave is more than knowing of having featured Masebrothers on their website on occasion. The company exclusively streamed Dragon Cop on its YouTube channel, in […]
BLOODWORLD: Tochi Osuji’s World-Building Art Book Needs Your Help!
Filmmaker Tochi Osuji has been on my radar for about six years now, having directed shorts like “Pond” and test fight piece “Nancy Drew & The Case of the Missing Food at Feirstein.” Nowadays, he’s eyeing the development of his own animated series, in the form of Bloodworld, with a campaign to raise funds to create an artbook with the employment of professional artists to help expand the world through quality imagery. Billed as a poetic screed against wealth and income inequality, Bloodworld is set in ancient Timbuktu, where a young miner manages to escape the cycle of poverty by climbing the ranks as a prizefighter, only then to be confronted by the choice of either living in his riches or using his skills to even the odds for his people, against a predatory king who secretly steals the blood of his subjects at night for his own empowerment. Osuji’s […]
KODAMA: Samurai SWAT Action Brings Japanese Folklore To Life In Brian Tang’s New Short Filming Next Week
Noted cinematographer and multi-faced filmmaking tradesman Brian Tang has about a handful of his own shortfilm endeavors dating back to 2011, and he’s about to dive right back in with the production of his newest and ambitious labor, Kodama. Collaborating with Joe Sill (Stray) at his Impossible Objects VFX lab, Tang launched the project on Kickstarter back in January for a month-long funding period through February, ultimately surpassing his $40,000 goal. The story is also set in the U.S. which further imbues Tang’s effort to produce an inspired, cutting-edge and modernized Asian American U.S.-set tale emboldened with Japanese folklore. “By mashing elegant traditional Japanese Samurai armor with present day American tactical SWAT aesthetics, we personify the cultural amalgamation associated with the modern Asian American experience.” says Tang according to the Kickstarter page. “Supah Ninjas”, G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra and “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” actor Brandon Soo […]
BRUSH OF THE GOD: Help Crowdfund Kaiju Film Legend Keizo Murase’s Feature Debut!
Legendary Kaiju cinema stalwart Keizo Murase, 88, is taking matters into his own hands with feature directing debut, Brush Of The God. Murase, who began his career in the 1950s working as a monster suit designer for Toho, has since taken to Kickstarter to help raise funds for the project, for which he will, for the most part, employ the kind of practical Japanese special effects wizardry that is signature of yesteryear Kaiju films. Murase will direct from a script by Takeshi Nakazawa (Hatsukoi-Geinin), which pits the film’s very title as crucial to the plot. The story centers on Akari, the granddaughter of a recently-deceased SFX model maker who was on track to make Brush Of The God his first feature film. Aided by her classmate at her grandfather’s farewell party, hardcore Tokusatsu fan Takuya, the two suddenly find themselves sucked into a wormhole that pulls them into the world […]
Legendary Hong Kong Actor Anthony Wong’s Lastest Project Needs Your Help
Anthony Wong (aka Wong Chau-Sang/ Anthony Perry) is a familiar face to lovers of classic Hong Kong cinema. Whether it’s due to facing off with Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung in John Woo’s two-fisted tale of bullet-ridden mayhem “Hard Boiled”, as a noble policeman in (the film that inspired Scorsese’s “The Departed”) “Infernal Affairs”, as the murderous psychopath in “The Untold Story”, or literally hundreds of other roles- Wong is a bonafide legend of that once great film industry. As you may know though, due to increased control (and censorship) from the mainland Chinese government, it is nearly impossible to get any film projects funded in Hong Kong. It has been even harder for Wong who has lost much of his acting opportunities due to his strong support of the pro-democracy protests that have occurred in Hong Kong the past few years. Things became so dire for him that he […]
A FATHER’S SON: Ronny Chieng Debuts NY Detective Jack Yu In The First Official Teaser
Late last year saw a staunch new effort in reimagining a bygone era of New York City based the work of author Henry Chang, with crowdfunding efforts toward independent pilot/short, A Father’s Son. Having brought in the likes of actors Tzi Ma (Netflix’s Wu Assassins) and Perry Yung (Cinemax’s Warrior), director Patrick Chen now introduces fans to the hopeful birth of a new screen hero in New York City police detective Jack Yu, introducing famed actor and comedian Ronny Chieng debuting the character in dramatic fashion. Based on the characters from Henry Chang’s 90s crime novel series. A film by Patrick Chen. Torn between his identity of his community and the NYPD, Detective Jack Yu delivers news of a son’s murder to the victim’s parents at the height of a gang turf war in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The Kickstarter was a major success, and so it looks like there may be […]
THE LEGEND AMONG GODS: Stick Figures Battle For Immortal Glory In New Animated Feature On Kickstarter
If you’ve kept up at all with viral video internet gems like fighting stick figure flash animations over the last ten years, then you can appreciate what the good folks behind The Legend Among Gods is up to this season on Kickstarter. The team behind animated stick figure action shorts Combat Gods 1 and 2 are working to finance up to $15,000 for post production to complete an animated feature which they describe as “a high-octane stick figure anime filled to the brink with insane action scenes” that also serves as “a meta-narrative about the emergence of a new breed of hero”. ‘The Legend’ sees himself as a mortal among Gods; a fable of potential only to be trampled by impenetrable god-like forces looking to preserve the status quo: No new Gods or powers capable of usurping the natural order of the realm. Anime has ensnared the hearts of millions […]
A FATHER’S SON: Help Bring Henry Chang’s Detective Jack Yu Crime Novel Series To Life On Screen
There’s very little of old New York left that folks currently in their late thirties and older may remember. Part of that legacy inherently includes Chinatown of the 1990s which filmmaker Patrick Chen hopes to capture following his current kickstarter for shortfilm/pilot, A Father’s Son. The project is spun from the successful line-up of crime novels from author Henry Chang who serves onward as executive producer. Centered on NYPD Detective Jack Yu, the early 90s Chinatown tale sees our hero investigator in search of a nondescript immigrant family in the wake of a young boy’s murder surrounding a local turf war among the gangs, offsetting a mark of self-discovery between himself and his own father. Chen, a Queens native like myself, hopes to capture the tempestous milleu honing in his craft with a crime noir touch akin to Johnnie To‘s PTU (2003) and Election (2005). He’s also eyeing veteran actors […]
NORTHBOUND: Help Keep Film And TV Alive In Michigan With Season Three Of The Survivalist TV Drama Series
Following a short local tour promoting the first two seasons of their survival series drama, Northbound, Lullskull Ltd. and “A” Street Films, LLC. officially took to their Light It Up campaign on Kickstarter last week announcing crowdfunding to help fundraise for production on Season 3 with a four-episode finale also in tow for 2019/2020. Shot entirely in Michigan’s visually stunning Upper Peninsula region, NORTHBOUND follows a lone father, Alex (Nate Alwine, pictured front-left) as he fights to protect his comatose daughter, Crystal (real daughters Callie and Addie Alwine) in the wilds of a post-cataclysmic North America. Season 1 begins 3 Months after The Cataclysm and follows a former soldier named Alex as he retreats with Crystal into a post-apocalyptic wilderness. Over the course of this first year, Alex encounters two emergent groups: a militia nicknamed The Firewalkers, and a much graver threat called Allied Command North America. Alex soon discovers […]
Bao Tran’s THE PAPER TIGERS Fulfills On Kickstarter, Signals Forthcoming Stretch Goals
On Saturday, the official Facebook page for Bao Tran‘s upcoming film, The Paper Tigers, posted a new video announcing they’ve reached their all-or-nothing Kickstarter goal. “We have a bit of news for The Paper Tigers on our Kickstarter,” said producer Al’n Duong. “We have reached our goal!” The Paper Tigers began as a shortfilm proof of concept called The Challenger, starring Martial Club’s own Andy Le, and Unlucky Stars actor Ken Quitugua. The release of the short followed with the production of the ten-minute pitch that was funded via Fractured Atlas and presented to buyers at the Frontiéres Platform at the Marché du Film at Cannes earlier this year. Footage from that pitch was finally introduced in a preliminary teaser on October 29 when the Kickstarter launched to help crowdfund a total of $110,000. A week-long dollar-for-dollar push at $10,000 was thrown in the mix on November 21, adding donors […]
UNFOLDING ‘THE PAPER TIGERS’: Catching Up With Filmmaker Bao Tran
For what it’s worth, director Bao Tran’s 2015 short, The Challenger, was just the shot in the arm needed to help grow his brewing vision for a larger feature narrative. That evolution will next arise as The Paper Tigers which now has a new campaign pending as of Monday to accrue the necessary support needed before rolling cameras some time in the first or second quarter of next year. Tran is joined by producers Michael Velasquez, Al’n Duong, Dan Gildark, and cult cinema favorite, Yuji Okumoto, along with a cadre of ripe, experienced talents as of late for a recently-filmed ten-minute pitch that Tran and Duong brought to the Frontières forum earlier this year to present the film to buyers. Essentially having shot two proofs this time around, I sought an opportunity to try and share an update from the director about his endeavors. The official website is still up […]
OMEGA 1: The Future Is Female, Kick-Ass And Wants You To Join Her Revolution!
If comics are more your speed, the latest pitch trailer for the hopeful relaunch of Mark Edward Lewis and actress and stuntwoman Alina Andrei’s motion comic thriller, Omega 1. The two launched the publication in 2007 with an eye toward bringing attention to cyber security with a superhuman female protagonist at the center of an action-driven sci-fi narrative that now aims to be much more as the team pushes toward funding goals toward its fifth and sixth entries. 2023 saw the advent of World War III, but it was a war of information: the Hacker War. Now, the only way to securely transmit data is hand-delivery via highly skilled couriers. Working for the premiere courier company is OMEGA 1, a genetically enhanced she-weapon who is deadly with a sword, fist fights with firearms and can draw metal to herself. She searches for her lost identity while trying to keep herself […]
Trailer: COMMANDO NINJA Hails With Screaming Mad 80’s Action Overkill To Launch Kickstarter
Filmmaker Benjamin Combes is notably taking a page from the recent success of David Sandberg’s Kung Fury and applying it to his own independent endeavors of late. Brandishing an unapologetic love for 80s nostalgia and R-rated action cinema lore, a Kickstarter page is underway to help wrap all ends of production for Commando Ninja and the trailer itself does way, WAY more than plenty in sampling what entails. Eric Carlesi stars in the film as a Vietnam Green Beret Vet, Half Commando, Half Ninja/Half commando/all American badass long forgotten by his government and now living in the Canadian woods. When his ex-wife is murdered and daughter Jenny gets kidnapped by a secret Ninja Organization, led by a Central-American dictator, who wants to create a new-world order through time, he’ll basically turn into the one-man army of destruction he needs to be to take Jenny back and defeat evil once and […]
Review: Female Empowerment Indie Western, CASSIDY RED, Hits Its Mark
You work in film long enough and set goals, and eventually you find your way to a director’s chair. Such is the case with debut writer and director Matt Knudsen, fourteen years in film and having worn multiple hats over the years as he now emerges proudly with crowdfunded Western drama, Cassidy Red. The story is largely infused with a feminist subtext focused on women amid their struggle to co-exist in the male-dominated late 1800s Old West. Toggling between varying parts of a 36 year timeline, we meet lounge pianist Cricket (Gregory Zaragoza) who obliges an exasperated hostess named Quinn (Jessy Knudsen) looking to unwind at the day’s end. At the stroke of his piano keyboard, Cricket transports you back in time to the height of our heroine’s search for vengeance for the presumed murder of her true love at the hands of the man she once would have married. […]
SWORD OF THE DEAD: Help Stephen Vitale’s Inspired New Chanbara Horror Rise From Its Grave!
No stranger to cult cinema, filmmaker Stephen Vitale’s resume topped off noticeably in recent years with a refreshing take on blind samurai fandom with Star Wars fan film short, Hoshino. That project was a delightful and compelling work paring our helmer with actress Anna Akana and there’s no telling when the two will regroup once more for something even just as fantastic or more. Of course, this still leaves us with Vitale with his freed-up time to continue his craft in ways that hit all the notes required for the audiences he seeks. There’s no question he achieves just that with his latest teaser for inspired chanbara horror proof-of-concept, Sword Of The Dead, which has already completed principal photography and now requires the good graces of loyal and financially able fans and cinephiles to help finish with perks available per contribution. After a curse befalls an island in Edo period […]
Spotlight Series: Bobby Nickels & FLUX ACTION
Usually my normal style of interviewing folks is just to have a sit-down over a cup of coffee, tea, or what have you but when conflicts arise between myself and action filmmaker/stuntman Bobby Nickels, we do what we can to get the job done. And this first Spotlight Series is no exception. I was able to fire off an email to Bobby with questions I had in mind and he responded frankly. Bobby is a 24 year-old stuntman living in Los Angeles. Originally from Seattle, Washington, he has been here for more than nine months to pursue his calling as a stuntman and freshly minted actor with Flux Action. CF: First I want to know a little bit of your background, in your own words, about who you are and how you came to be an action coordinator and stunt performer – your leanings, people you admire/respect, and your first hand at […]
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