Kung Fury is a Miami police officer and martial artist in the 1980s. He travels back in time to World War II to kill Adolf Hitler, who has mastered the art of kung fu.
Blaine: The first time I saw “Kung Fury” I was thinking this is both humorous and imaginative. I was also thinking “where did David Sandberg come up with this stuff?” I mean there is so many different things crammed together as one. “Kung Fury” has dinosaurs, cops, Nazis, barbarians and a lot of 80s stuff. It’s everything David loves in one movie. He is really using his imagination. And shortly after it began I was already laughing hard because it’s so funny.
David Sandberg comes from Sweden and he started his career off by directing and being a visual effects artist for T.V. commercials and music videos. His dream was to direct a feature with things he loved, robots, dinosaurs, cops and many more. David is also big on the 80s era and he listens to a lot of music from that time. David said the music helped him come up with the idea for “Kung Fury.” In 2012, David decided to quit his job and make his dream of directing a feature come true.
David Sandberg wrote down a lot of things that came to mind as he was putting together the script for “Kung Fury." He would write down various things. He got a close look at the words “kung fu” and “fury” and merged them together and wrote down “Kung Fury.” And that’s how he thought of the name/title.
The lead character was already a cop, but David thought maybe he could be a martial artist too. There was just one thing, David didn’t know how to fight in martial arts. David wrote the part of Kung Fury for himself and it was already enough putting the project together. Would he have the time to learn kung fu? But the stuntman David hired was able to fill in some of the fight scenes for him.
“Kung Fury” wasn’t going to be a full length feature, although David Sandberg wished it could have been, but it’s always nice to start off with something small before directing something big.
David Sandberg looks like Johnny Depp when he was in his 20s. Every time I look at David’s face I think of Johnny Depp when he was on “21 Jump Street.”
David Sandberg was having problems finding someone to say yes to financing the project. No one could understand what “Kung Fury” was about. David decided to put his own money into the project. He had to give up his coach, his T.V. and he moved back in with his mom because he couldn’t afford a place of his own. David was making sacrifices in order to make “Kung Fury.” He also put together his own company “Laser Unicorns.”
David was getting money from other places as well. He got in contact with Jorma Taccone, a former SNL actor, who has served in the film and television business as a writer, director, actor, and producer. Jorma was able to help by putting money into “Kung Fury.” Jorma completely understood how “Kung Fury” worked and what David wanted to see because the things he has made are on the same kind of level as “Kung Fury.” David Sandberg managed to raise $630,019 dollars. David couldn’t ask more from Jorma, except for him to play the bad guy, Adolf Hitler.
Thor was going to be in “Kung Fury” and it would be too expensive to have Chris Hemsworth be in the film because he’s a big actor. It took months for David to find the right Thor and then finally he decided to go with professional bodybuilder Andreas Cahling. Andreas believed in “Kung Fury” after David explained it to him and he was all for playing Thor. Another professional body builder, Helene Ahlson, was hired to play Katana, one of the female barbarians Kung Fury meets in the Viking age.
David Sandberg asked friends of his, Leopold Nilsson and Eleni Young, to be apart of “Kung Fury” as Hacker Man and Barbarianna. Eleni wasn’t too big on playing Barabrianna, but she did it anyway. Even though Eleni didn’t have full interest in playing Barbarianna, still it was a fun project to be apart of. Plus she looks bad ass and gets to hold a mini-Gatling machine gun.
There’s a lot of things that don’t make sense in “Kung Fury,” but they don’t have to be and that’s what makes it funny. “Kung Fury” is made to look like you are watching a VHS video and at the beginning they make it look like the video is jammed. It’s supposed to be funny.
There’s a triceratops in a police uniform and he wants to partner up with Kung Fury. His name is Triceracop. The character just came to David’s mind and he found it funny and that was it. David imagines a lot of things and an imagination is what a director is supposed to have.
One star David Sandberg was able to get was David Hasselhoff. Hasselholff does the voice of Kung Fury’s car, Hoff 9000. It’s suitable for an actor who is best known for being on a T.V. show where he works with a talking car. David Hasselhoff loves the 80s and he loved that it was going to be the theme of “Kung Fury.” So David Sandberg managed to fish in a Hasselhoff and that was a surprise to him. David Hasselhoff even sings a song called “True Survivor” in “Kung Fury.”
“Kung Fury” had extras that would be around just for a few seconds because they would get killed off. So their work was done after that, but those extras wanted to do more on the project, so David had them be Nazis too. Those extras wanted in on the fun. David was lucky enough to find people who wanted to do the project even though they wouldn’t get payed much.
“Kung Fury” was shot in David Sandberg’s home country Sweden. A lot of green screen backgrounds were set up. A lot of the things you see in “Kung Fury” are digital effects. The visual effects in “Kung Fury” are amazing. It’s impressive what they were able to achieve with so little money. There’s even an animated scene in the film. I wonder how much David had to pay the animators?
David Sandberg had high hopes for “Kung Fury” and believed it would be big. But when the trailer for “Kung Fury” was released on Youtube it got no reactions and that worried David. He had huge hopes for “Kung Fury” and he sacrificed so much just to get it made. Thing was, David was thinking ahead when really he just needed to give it time. The ratings were high the second time David checked, so thankfully for David it was getting attention.
“Kung Fury” was going places I don’t think David was expecting. He was hoping people would like it, but for “Kung Fury” to be worthy enough to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival was something else.
David Sandberg took a lot of risks in making “Kung Fury.” It could have ended the dream, but instead it helped start David’s career as a filmmaker. “Kung Fury” achieved popularity fast. People were getting “Kung Fury" tattoos on themselves, people in the comic book business were making a “Kung Fury” comic book, and when David and the cast went to Comic Con the same year “Kung Fury” was released there was fans dressed as the characters. David Sandberg really made a name for himself because of the success of “Kung Fury.” He started off as an unknown who worked on commercials to making a feature, even though it was short. David could not be more proud.
Both David Sandberg and his “Kung Fury” cast were getting a lot of attention. David was meeting people like Steven Spielberg, Snoop Dog and Gal Gadot.
There were several ideas David Sandberg had for “Kung Fury” that he wasn’t able to put in because he didn’t have the time or money. He’s not finished with “Kung Fury” yet. He hopes to make a full length feature of “Kung Fury” in the future. But for now he is working on a sequel. “Kung Fury 2” is set to be released in 2022. I’ve seen set photos for the sequel and judging by what I’ve seen it may be bigger than the first film. It also looks like David has a bigger budget too. The success of the first “Kung Fury” must have helped David raise money for the second movie.
Hitler is still the villain. Supporting characters, Triceracop, Barbarianna, and Hackerman are returning for this next chapter. The sequel also has some big names in it, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Fassbender and Alexandra Shipp. They must have seen the first “Kung Fury” and were really interested in being apart of the sequel. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be the President of the United States and based on the set photos I’ve seen, he’s not the type of President who just sits behind a desk, he also kicks ass!
It’s exciting for David to continue Kung Fury’s story. I can’t wait to see what “Kung Fury 2” has in store.
My rating on “Kung Fury” is five out of five stars.
