You may remember a ridiculous, campy send-up of 1980s action flicks titled Kung Fury that released a few years ago to the entertainment and amusement of many.
Much to our surprise — and, probably, to the surprise of many others — Kung Fury is apparently getting a feature-length sequel, with shooting set to begin this summer. Even more surprising? The list of actors attached to the project includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Hasselhoff (Knight Rider), acclaimed actor Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs), and according to the latest casting announcement, Baby Driver actress Eiza González.
Funded via Kickstarter after director/producer/star David Sandberg uploaded a homemade trailer in 2013, Kung Fury was 31 epic minutes of absurd set pieces, souped-up picture contrast, synthwave soundtracking, and a script that reads like it was inspired by an ayahuasca trip.
Gonzalez (pictured above) officially joined the film’s cast in May 2018, following a prominent role in 2017’s car-chase crime film Baby Driver.
According to Bloom Media, Schwarzenegger, the Terminator megastar (and, uh, ex-governor of California), has signed on for an undisclosed role in the film. And that’s not all — somehow, Sandberg (or whoever is in charge of casting) managed to convince both ’80s legend Hasselhoff and two-time Oscar nominee Fassbender to join the project.
Hasselhoff’s involvement is unexpected, but not shocking — he’s been appearing in comedy films as himself for years (see: Dodgeball, Ted 2, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie), and he’s shown a proclivity for lampooning stereotypical ’80s fare. Fassbender, on the other hand, has twice been nominated for Academy Awards, and apart from the poorly received Assassin’s Creed and The Snowman, his permanent record in film has hardly a black mark on it.
We don’t yet know what role either actor will take on in Kung Fury 2 — we also don’t know if that’s the name of the film — but Fassbender is being billed in a starring role, while Hasselhoff will likely play a smaller part.
Sandberg will return to star as the titular Kung Fury, “the greatest damn cop of all time” (that’s actually what the press release says), whose Thundercops police force made its name by defeating Adolf Hitler in the first Kung Fury film. When one of the Thundercops meets an untimely demise, causing the squad to break up, a new enemy emerges with a special weapon aimed at aiding Hitler in taking his revenge. You can’t make this stuff up, folks, but you can see the first movie on YouTube for free.
Frankly, we have no idea what to expect from the new project. It would be pretty fun to see Fassbender in a crazy villain role, if that’s the case, as his performances are usually somewhat reserved. Pelle Strandberg will executive produce under the Laser Unicorns banner, while the KatzSmith production team (It) will also contribute. Bloom will handle international sales and distribution.
Updated May 8 with news of Eiza González’s casting.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
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YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.