albert pyun Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Well, what do you know? Here I was thinking I was one of the few people out there who actually had fond memories of Walter Hill's musical flop Streets of Fire, but you can now add Albert Pyun to the list of the film's dedicated fans. Reports have surfaced over at AICN that the B-movie director extraordinaire is planning a sequel of sorts to the 1984 cult classic. According to AICN, the title is The Road to Hell, and will bring back Streets' original star, Michael Paré, to star alongside Clare Kramer (Buffy) and Courtney Peldon (Boston Public).

If you haven't seen the original, then you are missing out on some prime '80s cheese. What other decade would feature a rock and roll musical set in an urban fantasy land with Willem Dafoe sporting vinyl overalls in a sledgehammer fight to the death? According to AICN, the film will not be a direct sequel to Hill's original flick, but instead a tribute film that will take "STREETS' mood and energy, infusing 50s styled "hardboiled" dialog and characters possessing "dark" shades of gray."

Now that we finally have confirmation from Pyun on that The Sword and the Sorcerer sequel, I guess we'll just have to wait and see which project Pyun makes first. So even though I'm not all that thrilled about a sequel to one of my youth's guilty pleasures, I can't say no to a plot description like this: "Consider it Moulin Rouge meets torture porn. A heavily torqued romantic fantasy where dreams still live but they carry very big knives. "

I'm sold. How about you?

You'd have to be a seriously passionate fan of garbage cinema to recognize the name Albert Pyun. And you'd have to be a mega-maniacal ultra-wacko punishment-glutton to actually sit down and watch all of his films. For those who are less than familiar with the Pyun ouevre and suspect that I'm just being mean, I'll now list every film the man's ever made, only I'm leaving one out for a second. Ready? (You might want to sit down first.)

Radioactive Dreams (1985), Dangerously Close (1986), Pleasure Planet (1987), Down Twisted (1987), Alien from L.A. (1988), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1989), Deceit (1989), Cyborg (1989), Captain America (1990), Bloodmatch (1991), Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991), Dollman (1991), Nemesis (1993), Arcade (1993), Knights (1993), Brain Smasher: A Love Story (1993), Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor (1994), Hong Kong '97 (1994), Spitfire (1995), Heatseeker (1995), Nemesis 2: Nebula (1995), Ravenhawk (1996), Nemesis 3: Prey Harder (1996), Adrenalin: Fear the Rush (1996), Nemesis 4: Death Angel (1997), Blast (1997), Omega Doom (1997), Mean Guns (1997), Crazy Six (1998), Postmortem (1998), The Wrecking Crew (1999), Urban Menace (1999), Corrupt (1999), Ticker (2001) and Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon (2004).

I know. (I bolded my favorites.) He's like the anti-Spielberg, and if you've seen more than five or six of these titles then you know what I mean. But I left the Hawaiian-born schlock-maker's very first flick off the list -- because I absolutely love it. It's a 1982 Conan wannabe called The Sword and the Sorcerer, and I've been a massive fan of this freaky little B-flick since the day I first saw it on HBO in 1984. It's mostly an action-adventure thing, but it's also got doses of hardcore action, gory horror, tongue-in-cheek comedy ... and whatever else Pyun and company opted to toss into the blender. It not only stars Lee Horsley and Simon MacCorkindale, but it's also got Richard Lynch, Reb Brown and Richard (yes, Bull from Night Court) Moll as an evil warlock who pulls people's hearts out. It's got tons of action, giant snakes, a hearty sprinkling of sexiness ... and a pre-credits message that says "Talon will return in Tales of the Ancient Empire." (Talon was the hero of the piece.)

So the years went by and I revisited The Sword and the Sorcerer a few more times (especially when Anchor Bay released it on DVD), but I never actually thought A.P. would ever actually MAKE the thing. But guess what? According to an email from Mr. Pyun to AICN's Moriarty, it looks like production on Tales of the Ancient Empire will be shooting in Tunisia come October. That's all the info the director would share, but color me stunned regardless. For his part, Lee "Talon" Horsley just finished a supporting gig in Wayne Kramer's Crossing Over, so maybe he's ready to wield that wacky three-bladed sword one more time. (Seriously, you guys have to rent The Sword and the Sorcerer.)

More news on this mega-highly-anticipated-by-me sequel as it becomes available. Yeah, I really love the '80s flick cheese. That's why Cinematical hired me. You go Pyun!

These bites are more pulpy than usual, but every once in a while, we need something to smirk at:

• Some of you might squeal at the mention of Albert Pyun, but I didn't myself until I realized that he's the man who brought us the fan-freaking-tastic Cyborg. You remember that Van Damme flick, right? An apolocalyptic wasteland, a villain with creepy eyes and a tortured hero who was crucified and tormented with memories of a little girl, a well and some sharp, barbed wire. The latter still makes me twitch. Anyway, while I can't say that I love Pyun's work since then, he's got another film on the horizon -- Left for Dead -- an "amped up spaghetti western / horror fever dream. El Topo meets NC-17 horror madness." You can find stills here, and don't they look quite reminiscent of Cyborg? The women even look similar!
• Christie Boner -a.k.a.- the original Buffy, Kristy Swanson could be heading to television to take on the role of none other than recently-deceased Anna Nicole Smith. Fox News reports that sources are buzzing about a fictionalized version of Smith's life for Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Swanson, who recently made waves for her romance and child out-of-wedlock with still married father of two, Lloyd Eisler, should have the scandal part down-pat, and she's got a pretty good resemblance going (look to the right). Reports also say that Jon Lovitz might take on the part of Howard K. Stern, but Larry Birkhead will remain out of the story. With a television treatment out of the way, I'm sure we'll have feature film news in no time!
• Finally, it's a good thing Angelina Jolie has fame and money, otherwise, I don't know how she would handle her relationship, family, acting and global work! The kid-lover, who already has Maddox, Zahara and Shiloh, is speeding through an adoption for her fourth, a three-and-a-half-year-old Vietnamese son. It could be as little as a few weeks before Jolie whisks him away from the orphanage he's lived in since he was a baby. Why is this news worthy? Well, besides the fact that she's almost half-way to a Baseball team, I wonder how long it will be before we get a Jolie family movie, perhaps written just for her and her ever-growing number of children? Sound of Music for the new millennium, perhaps?