Dante Basco, the actor who played Rufio in Steven Spielberg’s Peter Pan sequel Hook, is Kickstarting a fan-fic film that tells the backstory of his character, who serves as the leader of The Lost Boys. In addition to Basco, the writer/director Jonah Feingold — who collaborated with Nash Grier on a YouTube series titled Confessions Of A Teenage Cupid last year — is set to helm the project, which is called Bangarang.
The short film will follow 13-year-old Roofus, according to its Kickstarter page, with a pre-Neverland story that has been reverse-engineered from Hook — including how Rufio became the leader of the Lost Boys, where ‘bangarang’ (a battle cry of sorts) comes from, and how he got his famed mohawk.
“The Peter Pan mythology, specifically Hook, is the reason I became a film director,” Feingold tells Tubefilter. “This is a passion project that I think holds a unique place in the prequel world, as it’s certainly a big commentary on our social and political climate.” Launched on Kickstarter on Monday, Bangarang has already raised $24,000 of its $30,000 goal — with 30 days of the campaign remaining. However, the team — which also includes executive producer (and Maker Studios co-founder) Rawn Ericson III — says that if they raise $200,000, they will create a feature-length version of Bangarang.
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In addition to raising funds, the team is also hoping to find potential cast members via the Kickstarter venture, and is inviting interested Los Angeles-based actors to email headshots and audition clips to bangarangthefilm@gmail.com. The project will ultimately be distributed for free on Basco’s YouTube channel, and is set to premiere in April.
Check out the pitch video for Bangarang below:
