Jungle Fever 2: Primal Fury - Peter Haynes

Posted by Steve on 6 April 2010 | 6 Comments

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Jungle Fever - Primal Fury is a continuation of the story begun in 2005
S NZ (New Zealand) 48hours finalist and Peter Jackson wildcard winner, Jungle Fever. The original film told the story of the protagonist, DK Bond a puppet monkey on the run after entering into a relationship with a human, the lovely Bodil DeRezney, forbidden by an oppressive totalitarian state. Eventually his love is lost to him, taken away due to his one weakness ... his addiction to bananas.

Primal Fury picks up the story a year later with DK a broken monkey. The previous Minister of Human/Puppet Relations, Bruce Torquemada, has consolidated his power in a bloody coup, becoming the sole dictator. His first act is to completely outlaw any connection between humans and puppets, or fuzzies. Hanging around seedy bars, DK cares little about any of this until he is enlisted against his will by a mysterious employer who has his own personal reasons to oppose the government. Freed of his addiction to bananas by an experimental brainwashing technique, DK is ready to track down his old nemesis, and rescue his lost love, Bodil. But will she want him back? And is his new employer all he appears? And what is the shocking secret that could shake the human/puppet society to its very core?

Where did the idea/concept for your web series come from?

JF2: Primal Fury was born of 4 am desperation during a 48hours film contest, in which you write, direct and edit a film in a 48-hour period. The resulting product was pretty rough, but very well received, and we thought there was potential there for a sequel. After a very brief meeting with a local TV channel who agreed to screen the episodes in weekly installments, it was all go.

Name some of your sci-fi influences. Any favorite movies, TV shows, novels?

Being of a certain age, Im obliged to list Star Wars as my main influence, not only in sci fi, but in movie going in general. It's the film that really made me want to make movies. I'm also a huge fan of the works of Jim Henson, hence the puppet theme.

Tell us about the technical production of your show. What camera & equipment did you use? Editing software & hardware? For visual effects, etc?

JF2 was shot on a Panasonic HVX with a Redrock 35mm lens adaptor attached for a more cinematic look. We were trying to achieve a big budget look on a completely miniscule budget (Totally self funded) and to a degree we succeeded. Special effects mostly consisted of gunfire and explosions, courtesy of Detonation Films.

Can you tell us any interesting facts or trivia about your show? Any funny stories?

DK the monkey was a fairly straightforward puppet built especially for the show, with his only extra point of articulation being his expressive eyebrows. The hardest (and most time consuming) part of this film was choreographing and shooting action sequences involving puppets, especially chase scenes between two vehicles where DK had to jump from one to the other. I think we ran over his stunt double at least three times.

You can find Jungle Fever 2: Primal Fury online here.

Jungle Fever 2: Primal Fury: SciFinal Page