This week's Hit List was an absolute blast to help put together. We've got new action shorts and reels of all kinds to snack on this week in addition to some brief updates on major projects that are forthcoming!
For now though, let's face it: The only way I'm starting off this Hit List is if I do it with one of the most popular videos online to date, and if you're a Jason Statham fan, you'll understand. It's a supercut of every single punch Statham has ever thrown. Ever. And it needs no further introduction than that.
Beneath that will be the week's stunt playlist with a slew of action, stunt and training reels by Noah Fleder, Awaken star Natalie Burn, stuntman Djibril Newik Chase, independent filmmaker Shahaub Roudbari, Mirkos Radas, John Renyolds, Uros Certic, Amiee Zannoni, Cornered webseries co-star, actor Bobby Hernandez and action actor Angel Vasquez.
Now we get to brings things here into focus just a bit with the latest installment of actor and Ameritoku mainstay Jason David Frank's online doc series, My Morphin Life. For this, we venture into a behind-the-scenes look into the spectacular episode featuring Frank and action actors Peter Jang and Alvin Hsing in the epic duel between the Green Ranger and legendary Street Fighter character Ryu. As always, these things come with a few snags and Frank sure had his, but it didn't stop him from powering through. Check it out!
Up next are a couple of other new director reels featuring a small variety of things, including action. The first comes with great revere for French action director Godefroy Ryckewaert who never ceases to impress, and his latest trailer for the new shortfilm, Hiro, samples that fact quite a bit with Alex Duong starring as a man forced back into the Yakuza underworld in order to save his daughter. Hiro is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival which kicks off on September 10, and you can purchase your ticket by clicking right here for the screening.
The second video comes from Canadian cascadeur, actor and filmmaker Taz Garcia in the form of First Bust, a story of two odd couple undercover cops well on their way to their first major arrest, as long as they don't get in each other's way, and you can imagine the hilarity that ensues. The project was initially going to be a two-minute short story which eventually expanded into something slightly longer when more people got involved, and as it stands, it could very well present a meaty concept for television if things go favorably.
Check out both videos below!
Up next is a bit of a teaser from the folks over at EMC Monkeys who have been very busy working on their own individual projects and other obligations in the past couple of years. Such things tend to get in the way of content creation which is what they've largely been known for, and now the team's teaser is officially circulating online with a number of exciting new projects that are either completed, still being filmed or already in post, including an upcoming collaboration with Corridor Digital, as well as the long-awaited Evolution Of Fight series, Vs. Ninjas series, and the upcoming Nerf Cops tete-a-tete sequel with the first part arriving on Friday, September 4 upon which fans can expect even more content every week thereafter. (If you haven't seen the first Nerf Cops installment yet, your chance to do so is right here).
Also up for viewing are two other new director reels, including Desciple's latest reel full of action and dialogue gems, with snippets from two of his latest hyper-reality action shorts, Hetja and Hetja 2; The latter title is also being groomed for a possible award win at this year's Action On Film Festival with acting nominations for two of its lead performers, Disavowed webseries star Will Yick, and The Stunt People's own Bridger Fox.
The second reel comes from Darren Holmquist of Dardrex Productions with a new director's reel full of long-awaited goods that are pending with planned releases before the end of 2015.
Time to pepper thing up a bit with some fighting, and following Holmquist's production reel is a fresh new fight featuring himself opposite Leonard Zhang, proceeded by some sweet Karambit/Gun choreo from director Evan Taylor, a quick little scene of action from Rising Tiger Films's own Leroy Nguyen and Edmond Shum, and a superb test fight from Jay Kwon with Alex Meglei and Brett Easton.
And lastly, it's been a long and incredible journey for independent filmmaker and film student Anthony Pellino for his latest labor of love, Mortal Kombat: The Chosen One. Inspired by the popular fighting game of the same name, and featuring fight design by Cinematic Fight Studio's own Lawrence Yip, this one takes a slightly derivative approach to the source material. Jonathan Lee, David Chen and Craig Zisel are joined by lead actor Kage Yami in the role of former Shaolin monk, Liu Kang who is about to receive the most unexpected visit of his life.
Pellino's goal was originally to create something more than a fan film, which is why it took so long to finish, aside from school, two crowdfunders, reshoots and other hurdles. Fan film or not, a project like this is just what we need to help keep the pulse beating among fans as a new webseries season is still pending, in addition to further details regarding the revived hopes for a film as recently as the top of last month. It's a great case for more similar content with dozens of characters to experiment and play with, and I hope this isn't the last we see from the creative field we have today in that regard.
Mortal Kombat: The Chosen One can now be viewed on YouTube in the player below, as well as on Vimeo!
Further worth mentioning is the current completion post-production of independent action director Eric Nguyen with the new short, Of Martial Arts And Men, with a September airing planned, and it just so happens that his Spring actioner, El Guerrero, has been nominated with a mention among a slew of other shortfilms for this year's Action On Film Festival which kicks off on September 18 through 26. Other news includes the upcoming comic-book fan film sequel, Black Panther And Deadpool: The Gauntlet, which just finished filming over the weekend, and a trailer can be viewed here as well in case you missed it. In addition, further pending are updates for Robot Underdog's forthcoming episodes for the Dragon Ball Z: Light Of Hope webseries with actor Tim Neff (Flowers Of The Night) set to play Trunks. Major creative differences have currently invoked restructuring of the original script, Dragon Ball Z enthusiast and former series writer Derek Padula who made his case in a recent blog post after announcing his departure from the project; As pot-stirring as these things tend to be, the least we can do is hope for a great sequel after this year's stellar offering, which you can check out here.
Indeed, this week is another loaded one with more to come, and hopefully you've been able to keep up with all the craziness as last week's Hit List is just as awesome. Beyond that, subscribe to the channels above and by all means, if you or someone you know creates exciting, QUALITY content, just hit us with an e-mail filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com.
