Arnold Schwarzenegger, on top of a giant dinosaur, massive gun in hand, shooting Nazis. It was footage that launched a thousand blog posts across the internet. Leaked footage, in fact, from a movie called Kung Fury 2 which, despite being filmed in 2019 and also featuring Michael Fassbender as a cocky, over-the-top supercop, has never been released. But that’s not because audiences aren’t ready for all that Arnold awesomeness. It’s because of money. Isn’t it always?
In a new interview with Variety, Kung Fury 2 star, writer, and director David Sandberg details multiple lawsuits that continue to plague the film, now over five years later. Those center mainly on Creasun Entertainment USA, the U.S. branch of a Chinese film company called Creasun Media. In 2019, Creasun signed on to help finance two-thirds of Kung Fury 2, including about $10 million in visual effects work from the company Double Negative. Production went fine, but then something changed. “Once we started getting to VFX, things started to really slow down, and things became a bit weird,” Sandberg said. “And then it turned out that our Chinese financier had basically stopped all payments.”
A lawsuit was filed and, after about a year and a half, a settlement was reached in which Creasun was going to pay what it owed. But, apparently, that still didn’t happen. So Creasun was sued again, but it didn’t stop there. Creasun filed countersuits accusing producers of stealing money from the production. Sandberg says that isn’t true, and Variety reports some of the other producers on the film tried to buy Creasun out. It declined.
“They just kind of stonewalled every single attempt to solve the issue,” he said. “And it was just really heartbreaking for me as an artist who’s worked on this for years. And there are so many people who have poured their hearts into this, and I feel super terrible for them.”
And so the slow legal process continues, ensuring that despite principal photography being complete, as well as an edit of the movie, between $5 and $10 million of visual effects remain unfinished. In fact, the footage that leaked earlier this month had temporary effects, which were never supposed to be seen by the public. “It’s a fantastic movie and I’m so bummed that I can’t show it,” Sandberg said. “But I haven’t given up on it. One day, for sure, it will get released. But we just have to power through it. But it’s incredible. Fassbender is incredible. Arnold is incredible. We had such a wonderful experience on set and everyone felt the love behind it. So it’s just a shame that it would end up this way. But it’s not over. It will get out there eventually.”
Read more from Sandberg, including some teases of the movie he’s been making as the Kung Fury 2 legal battle continues to play out, over at Variety.
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