Last we left the proposed Samurai Cop sequel, all we knew was that star Matt Hannon was definitely alive and available. With that critical piece in place, pre-production on the movie has apparently started in earnest: Not only is Robert Z’dar now in, but according to producers, The Room’s Tommy Wiseau and The Crow star/noted eccentric Bai Ling have also joined the cast. Wiseau, Ling, and Z’dar are the newest additions to a previously reported and still-impossible-to-confirm cast list that rather inexplicably includes Seymour Cassell and a couple of retired porn stars.
Director Amir Shervan, the man who can be credited/blamed for most of Samurai Cop’s most hilarious/inept attributes, will not be returning for the sequel, mostly because he died in 2006. Gregory Hatanaka, a longtime film distributor who has produced his fair share of B-movie trash, will take over directing duties instead.
If all this sounds like a perfect storm of so-bad-it’s-good, then you, Joe or Jane Q. Trashlover, can help make Samurai Cop 2 a reality. Producer Cineridge Entertainment has started a Kickstarter campaign to supplement the funding for the film, which Cineridge says will go towards both CGI and producing some more plausible action scenes this time around. Besides the usual signed posters and DVD copies, prizes include lunch with either Samurai Cop and his partner or their blonde nemeses; an opportunity to appear in the film; or, for $10,000, you can serve as an executive producer. The campaign has currently raised just under $35,000 of its $50,000 goal with 11 days left to go, so get on it, Internet.