Hunter? Prey?

Teaser trailer for Sandy Collora's upcoming feature debut Hunter Prey. Collora was the brains behind the monster mash-up Batman: Dead End short that did the Internet rounds a few years back. This new piece has the same genre fragment pile-up vibe. There's a strong 70s sci-fantasy vibe hanging over this shill, the CG matte skyline is straight out of a painted spaceships artbook, and the wandering action figure characters recall an expanded George Lucas universe. Perhaps something to pad out those Mandolorians? It's a lo-fi impression though, much more pre-tinker New Hope than CG heave Prequel - that alchemy of combining complimentary practical and special effects to create lived-in worlds. It's a knack Lucas quickly lost.

Watching the trailer I began to wonder why no-one had ever really attempted to brazenly cannibalise Star Wars' visual signifiers for their own nefarious ends, before realising that everyone tried, and very little of it made any lasting impression. Hunter Prey, in this truncated form, has the mood of a quicky Euro-comic rushed out while the artists head is still ringing with visions of Tatooine. It's Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars shorts writ real. Most of all though, it feels like an out-of-time low budget cash-in for an audience clamouring for Star Wars II. I hear that Boba Fett guy from the Holiday Special has a bigger part in this one!