Chief Zabu | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Howard Zuker Neil Cohen |
Written by | Neil Cohen Nancy Zuker Howard Zuker |
Produced by | Norman Leigh Neil Cohen Nancy Zuker Howard Zuker |
Starring | Allen Garfield Zack Norman Allan Arbus Ed Lauter Manu Tupou |
Music by | Andrew Asch |
Release date |
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Running time | 75 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $187,966 [1] |
Chief Zabu is a long-unreleased film that was written, produced and directed by Neil Cohen and Zack Norman (under his birth name, Howard Zuker). [2] [3] [4] It is a socio-political comedy about a New York real estate developer who tries to take over a Polynesian nation. The film stars Norman, Allen Garfield and Allan Arbus as New York businessmen trying to take over a newly independent Polynesian nation. [5] Production began in 1986 but, due to various issues, Cohen and Norman were unable to complete the film until 2016. It premiered at Laemmle Theatres' Monica Film Center on October 28, 2016 [6] [7] and screened a week later, on November 7, at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival ("FLIFF"). [8] Trailers and clips are available through both Vimeo [9] and YouTube. [10] On August 16, 2017, Zabu's co-writer/directors were pictured on the front page of the New York Times Arts Section with a history of the film's unique and unusual journey. [11]
A long running advertisement for the film in Variety was the source of a recurring joke on Mystery Science Theater 3000 . [11] [12]
The film follows an ambitious New York realtor who dreams of political power and decides to accomplish this by taking over a Polynesian nation.
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. [13]
Film writer Larry Langman saw the "poorly received" [11] 1980s preview version and dismissed the film as "ineptly produced comedy." [14]
Reviewing the 2016 release, Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a mixed review, calling its comedy "uneven", while still retaining "a satirical bite." [15] Michael Rechtshaffen of the Los Angeles Times called it a "tiresomely talky would-be satire" that "plays like bargain basement Barry Levinson". [16]
In anticipation of the film's screening at FLIFF, a Fort Lauderdale restaurant introduced a specialty cocktail named the "Chief Zabu". [17]
Following a series of festival and awards-qualifying screening runs, blogger Chad Sternberger of the popular website The Studio Exec implored Hollywood distributors: "For heaven's sake could someone please release Chief Zabu." [18] The film was one of 336 titles to qualify for the 89th Academy Awards. [19]
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". [20]
Diane Arbus was an American photographer. She photographed a wide range of subjects including strippers, carnival performers, nudists, people with dwarfism, children, mothers, couples, elderly people, and middle-class families. She photographed her subjects in familiar settings: their homes, on the street, in the workplace, in the park. "She is noted for expanding notions of acceptable subject matter and violates canons of the appropriate distance between photographer and subject. By befriending, not objectifying her subjects, she was able to capture in her work a rare psychological intensity." In his 2003 New York Times Magazine article, "Arbus Reconsidered", Arthur Lubow states, "She was fascinated by people who were visibly creating their own identities—cross-dressers, nudists, sideshow performers, tattooed men, the nouveaux riches, the movie-star fans—and by those who were trapped in a uniform that no longer provided any security or comfort." Michael Kimmelman writes in his review of the exhibition Diane Arbus Revelations, that her work "transformed the art of photography ". Arbus's imagery helped to normalize marginalized groups and highlight the importance of proper representation of all people.
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Allan Franklin Arbus was an American actor and photographer. He was the former husband of photographer Diane Arbus. He is known for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman on the CBS television series M*A*S*H.
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Allen Garfield was an American film and television actor.
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Andrew Russell Garfield is an English and American actor. His accolades include a Tony Award, a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award. Time included Garfield on its list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
Mariclare Costello is a retired American television, stage, and movie actress. She is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio. Costello's most notable role was that of Rosemary Hunter Fordwick on the television series The Waltons, from 1972 to 1977. In 1977, after her role on The Waltons, she played matriarch Maggie Fitzpatrick on the short-lived drama show The Fitzpatricks.
Laura Robyn Langman is a retired New Zealand international netball player, who last played domestic netball for the Sunshine Coast Lightning in the Australian Super Netball league. Primarily a midcourt player, Langman is a former captain and vice-captain of the New Zealand national netball team. She is the most capped player in the history of the Silver Ferns, having overtaken Irene van Dyk's record of 145 test matches in October 2018.
Manu Tupou was an American-based Fijian actor, writer, director, and teacher.
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Howard Jerrold Zuker, known professionally as Zack Norman, was an American actor, comedian, film producer, and art collector. Norman is best known for his acting role as the cousin of Danny DeVito's character in 20th Century Fox's Romancing the Stone (1984). As an art collector, he sold a Jean-Michel Basquiat piece for a then record-breaking $110.5 million in 2017.
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Girl on a Bicycle is a 2013 English-language independent romantic comedy directed and written by Jeremy Leven, produced by Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann, and starring Vincenzo Amato, Nora Tschirner, Paddy Considine, Louise Monot, and Stéphane Debac. Girl on a Bicycle was filmed in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, and Paris, France.
Dancin': It's On! is a 2015 American musical romantic comedy film co-written, directed and produced by David Winters in his final film prior to his death in 2019. The cast consists of numerous winners and runner-ups from the dance competition TV show So You Think You Can Dance, led by Witney Carson and Chehon Wespi-Tschopp, with Gary Daniels and Winters.
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Real estate salesmen Allen Garfield and Zack Norman, who make a deal with Polynesian island chief Manu Tupou, face multiple problems in this ineptly produced comedy.