Nearly five years ago, Hollywood lost acting legend, Dennis Hopper to prostate cancer. Before his passing, Hopper was working on The Last Film Festival. Now, director of the film, Linda Yellen has launched a Kickstarter campaign in an effort to finally finish the production of the unreleased movie.
While explaining her admiration for Hopper, Yellen wrote:
“Dennis Hopper has long been a hero of mine. He changed the face of independent filmmaking for generations to come with his groundbreaking and wildly successful film, Easy Rider, and gave fearless performances whether playing rebels in Apocalypse Now, Rebel Without A Cause and Giant, or villains in True Romance, Blue Velvet and Speed. He was always convincing and unforgettable.
“A number of years ago I was lucky enough to meet him at the legendary Sundance Film Festival. We spent a lot of time laughing at the excitement, extravagance, and chaos of it all. Sundance is simply one of the best film festivals in the world, and I wondered what the worst would be like? Dennis turned to me and said, ‘that’s a great idea kid, you write the script and I’ll do it.’ And he did!”
Sharing details about the project, Yellen revealed:
“The Last Film Festival is a feature length comedy starring Dennis Hopper, written by Michael Leeds and me. Dennis plays Nick Twain, a big-time Hollywood Producer whose latest flop of a film has been rejected by every film festival in the world except the O’Hi Film Festival.
“O’Hi is a small town with big dreams, whose film-loving Undertaker has persuaded the Mayor to host the event in the local high school. But Nick Twain will do anything to get his film distributed, so in a last-ditch effort for publicity Twain and his dysfunctional cast and crew descend on the town.
“Hollywood egos collide with small town politics and by the time the award for Best Picture is announced, long-held secrets have been revealed, unexpected romances ignited and the answer to the big mystery solved.”
Cast of The Last Film Festival are Jacqueline Bisset, Joseph Cross, JoBeth Williams, Donnell Rawlings, Chris Kattan, Katrina Bowden and Leelee Sobieski.
In regards to why she and her team decided to turn to Kickstarter for help, Yellen added:
“Filming on the picture came to a halt almost five years ago when Dennis tragically died at age 74 from cancer. He was just a few scenes short of completing work on the film, and had already seen a rough cut and loved it.
“The grief we felt, paired with certain creative and financial issues that remained unsolved with his passing, prompted us to put completion of the project on hold.
“As May 2015 will mark the fifth anniversary of Dennis’ death, we want to release the movie to the public this year. With so many people continuing to write and ask us how and when they can see the film, we’ve decided now is the time to kick post-production into overdrive so we can finish the film once and for all – but we need your support!”
Those who back the project will receive various awards, including PDF script, soundtrack, digital download of the film, t-shirt design, posters, and VIP screenings.
The campaign is set to close on April 9th.
_____________________________________________________
Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!