‘Kung Fury’ Director Unveils New Movie ‘Dragonlord,’ Calls It a ‘Crazy Mishmash’ of ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ (EXCLUSIVE)

From kung fu cops with half-human, half-dinosaur crime-fighting partners to treasure-hunting adventurers with T-Rexes as BFFs.

Swedish filmmaker David Sandberg, best known as the writer, director and star of viral action-comedy short “Kung Fury” about a renegade time-travelling martial arts law enforcer, is working on a new feature film. And for fans of his wildly colourful cult debut — a preposterously OTT homage to 80s action movies that featured machine gun-toting Viking valkyries, a character called Triceracop and a high-kicking Adolf Hitler (aka “Kung Fuhrer”) — it doesn’t seem a million miles away.

“Dragonlord,” currently in development, is billed as a “fantasy punk” film blending action, comedy and sci-fi.

The feature is set in a world Sandberg describes as “like ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Mad Max, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and He-Man mashed into one, where dinosaurs from the past co-exist with robots from the future — and everything in between.” There are big gun, big swords and, by the sound of it, a whole lot of crazy.

The story follows a character known as Dragonlord (to be played by Sandberg), a treasure-obsessed hunter whose best friend is a Tyrannosaurus Rex called Blaze Falcon. Rather than hunt for yet more treasure, however, Blaze just wants to hang out and play video games, but when he’s kidnapped by the evil Dreadmancer (think He-Man’s archenemy Skeletor), Dragonlord must pull together an Avengers-like team of bonkers heroes to save his dino buddy.

“It’s a really fun, really rich world with a lot of funny characters,” says Sandberg. “It’s tonally similar to ‘Kung Fury’.”

A work in progress image from ‘Dragonlord’, courtesy of David Sandberg

Alongside Dreadmancer, the lineup of figures in “Dragonlord” includes the Dread Riders (“like the Stormtroopers of our world”), a tech guy called Quantum Cobra, Sword Lord (“who used to work for Dreadmancer but fell in love with his unicorn so is now one of the good guys”), someone called Titanus whose name people keep pronouncing as “Tight Anus,” Budgie, who is a “like a bird man who shits acid,” and many more. So far, so insane. And so similar, at least creatively and comedically, to “Kung Fury.”

“It’s such a crazy mishmash of stuff. There’s no movie that I can think of that’s exactly like it,” says Sandberg. “But yeah, it’s a like He-Man mixed with ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Mad Max’ and also ‘Ninja Turtles’… but it’s definitely gonna feel super different, I think, from anything.”

The filmmaker says the “Dragonlord” script is currently being polished, with the casting process set to begin soon and a shoot aimed for spring 2026. Unlike “Kung Fury,” which was predominantly filmed against a green screen, “Dragonlord” will be shot using virtual production technologies, which he asserts give him vastly more powerful world-building tools than he previously had at his disposal and, despite the epic scope of the project, should keep the budget down.

The entire “Dragonlord” project is being financed by Finnish entrepreneur Mikko Kodisoja, who made his fortune as the co-founder of Supercell, the gaming company behind monster mobile hit “Clash of Clans.” Sandberg says the two bonded over the idea “creating new, exciting high-concept IPs for movies,” with “Dragonlord” being the first of a slate of projects they’re building. Sandberg is now developing the film at Kodisoja’s virtual production facility in Finland.

News of “Dragonlord” lands almost 10 years to the day since “Kung Fury” first premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Following the premiere, a feature-length follow up — again to be directed by Sandberg — was announced, and, over the proceeding years, major names including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Fassbender would join the cast. Despite the shoot wrapping in late 2019, legal issues involving the film’s Chinese financier would see post-production grind to a halt in 2020. Five years on and after multiple lawsuits, the legal issues rumble on and the film remains in limbo (although a recently-leaked 10-minute sizzle reel caused a stir online).

Speaking to Variety earlier this month, Sandberg described how “heartbreaking” it had been to see his passion project stalled for so long, and admitted that it had left him in a “deep depression.” But ultimately it led to him creating again, with “Dragonlord” the result. Thanks to Kodisoja fully-funding the feature, this time around he doesn’t have to look for other financiers or even worry about pre-sales. The plan is to finish the film and then introduce it to potential distributors.

Of course, there are still hopes that the legal knots keeping “Kung Fury” tied down can be undone, and the reaction to the leaked sizzle show there’s still a huge amount of interest. But until then, at least Sandberg has another insane world — including an acid-defecating birdman — to keep him busy.