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The insane '80s action short Kung Fury is jumping from Kickstarter to your TV

The insane '80s action short Kung Fury is jumping from Kickstarter to your TV

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I've been waiting for David Sandberg's 1980s-inspired action short Kung Fury since the project first appeared on Kickstarter — and now audiences will be able to watch it on their TVs. The film has been picked up by the El Rey Network, the cable channel masterminded by genre filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Spy Kids, and the better half of Grindhouse no matter what anybody says), and will be debuting on May 28th at 6:30PM ET.

Sandberg wrote, directed, and stars in the half-hour short, a love letter to 1980s action movies, video games, and ridiculousness in general. The titular Kung Fury is a renegade police officer with a rad headband and a radder jacket, who travels back in time — via hacking, because why not? — to fight kung fu master Adolf Hitler. (Yes, you read that correctly.) There's also copious use of the Nintendo Power Glove, cars getting flipped over by skateboards, and dinosaurs.

Vikings. Dinosaurs. The Power Glove.

I'm also personally excited to see Kung Fury because its creation seems to have followed the same logic as my band in high school did: make cool T-shirts first, then worry about music later. Only in this case the T-shirt was the completely insane trailer used to promote the short's Kickstarter campaign, which Sandberg topped last month with the equivalent of some really amazing stickers: a music video featuring David Hasselhoff.

That trailer was enough to help the film's Kickstarter campaign rack up over $630,000, which let Sandberg finish his shoot and hire visual effects artists to build the virtual locations for nearly every shot in the movie. The finished product made it into this year's Cannes Film Festival, and Sandberg is currently shopping a feature-length version of the project as well. Those without cable will still be able to get in on the fun, as the short will also be debuting online — so buckle up, watch some Chuck Norris movies, and get ready.