Dinner with Leatherface: Michael Kallio’s saga to honor Gunnar Hansen
Michael Kallio – Radioactive Chickenheads – Courtesy of Michael Kallio and Kim Simms
Onward and Upward
1428 Elm: Your resume is jam packed with upcoming features like the Radioactive Chicken Heads and Howard the Duck documentaries! Howard in particular has been getting some play in the press because Leah Thompson was interested in doing a reboot and possibly directing.
MK: YES! For some reason, I find myself in the middle of TWO documentaries based on birds (and a third short mockumentary about the Rubber Chicken)! Well, one is a DUCKUMENTARY, the other a CLUCKUMENTARY.
My pal, Ernie Trinidad, started the whole Howard the Duck doc, “Howard the Doc Or: How I Learned to Start Quacking and Love the Bomb” is Ernie’s baby based on the fan base for the film. I just came on to help produce, as I have strange connections with people who know people who worked on that movie.
We were just in the Bay area and interviewed Academy Award winning Visual Effects/Stop-Motion artist, Phil Tippett, which was such a joy. I’ve been a fan of Phil’s since I was 9 and it was tremendously awesome to meet, hang out and interview such a legend. I will also be appearing in it myself for I have a personal connection to the film and I have started to bug Lea Thompson for an interview. We are interviewing Ed Gale who played Howard the majority of the time on Thursday.
Michael Kallio – Phil Tippett – Courtesy of Michael Kallio and Kim Simms
The “Untitled Radioactive Chickenheads” project is based on a punk band from Santa Ana that have been doing their thing for 25 years and still going. I had known about the band but didn’t realize just how long or how much history they had. It’s a great underdog story and it features some cool interviews like Richard Elfman, co-founder of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, filmmaker and Danny Elfman’s big brother.
It also has interviews from Jerry Casale of Devo and Lloyd Kaufman, founder of Troma Films. Many more interviews are on the way. It should be an inspiring and crazy film once it is done. They’re like GWAR for kids. Go check them out on their website at Radioactive Chickenheads or check them out on YouTube. It’s definitely a fun rabbit hole to go down. Stay tuned for that doc sometime in late 2019/early 2020.