7.6 /10 1 Votes7.6
Music by Andrew Asch Running time 75 minutes Director Neil Cohen | 7.6/10 IMDb Release date 2016 Initial release 28 October 2016 Budget 187,966 USD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Directed by Howard ZukerNeil Cohen Written by Neil CohenNancy ZukerHoward Zuker Starring Allen GarfieldZack NormanAllan ArbusEd LauterManu Tupou Cast Similar Floyd Norman: An Anima, Confessions of a Womanizer, American Wrestler: The Wizard, Death at Love House, The Abolitionists | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fliff2016 chief zabu
Chief Zabu is a long-unreleased film that was written, produced and directed by Neil Cohen and Zack Norman (under the pseudonym Howard Zuker). It stars Allen Garfield, Norman and Allan Arbus, telling the story of a group of New York businessmen trying to take over a Polynesian nation. Production began in 1986 but, due to various issues, Norman and Cohen were unable to complete the film until 2016. It premiered at Laemmle Theatres' Monica Film Center on October 28th, 2016 and screened on November 7th at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival ("FLIFF"). The trailer and various clips are available through both Vimeo and YouTube.
Contents
A long running advertisement for the film in Variety was the source of a recurring joke on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Synopsis
The film follows an ambitious New York realtor who dreams of political power and decides to accomplish this by taking over a Polynesian nation.
Cast
Merchandise
At his TeePublic website, American entrepreneur Josh Abramson offers a t-shirt bearing an image of the Variety advertisement that ran consistently between 1985 and 1988.
Reception
Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, calling it "A comic time capsule with a timeless punch." Contrastingly, Michael Rechtshaffen of the Los Angeles Times called it a " tiresomely talky would-be satire" that "plays like bargain basement Barry Levinson".
In anticipation of the film's screening at FLIFF, a Fort Lauderdale restaurant introduced a specialty cocktail named the "Chief Zabu".
Following a series of festival and awards-qualifying screening runs, blogger Chad Sternberger of the popular website "The Studio Exec" (the studioexec.com) implores Hollywood distributors: "For heaven’s sake could someone please release Chief Zabu." The film was one of 336 titles to qualify for the 89th Academy Awards.
Actress Marianna Hill, one of the stars of the film, spoke at length about her experience working on Chief Zabu on the movie/TV blog "Hill Place".