It may not have Dennis Hopper screaming in a cowboy hat with a chainsaw in each hand—that would be 1986’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2—but the independent comedy The Last Film Festival does have the distinction of being the last film in which the legendary Easy Rider and Blue Velvet star appeared before his death in May 2010. Directed by Linda Yellen, The Last Film Festival stars Hopper as Nick Twain, a big-time Hollywood producer whose latest movie has been rejected by everyone except for the O’Hi Film Festival, a tiny festival held in a small-town high school gym. Desperate to get his film distributed, Twain descends on the festival with his entourage, who immediately collide with the townspeople.
The Last Film Festival was still in production when Hopper died; he was reportedly only a few scenes short of wrapping his role, and saw a rough cut of the film before he passed. Smelling a money-making opportunity, Yellen says that in the wake of Hopper’s death unscrupulous producers offered to give her the money to finish the film on the condition that she rush it out and into theaters. Wanting more time to finish the film properly, Yellen refused. Now, five years later, she and her crew have turned to Kickstarter to help cover post-production costs.
The Last Film Festival also stars Jacqueline Bisset, Joseph Cross, JoBeth Williams, Donnell Rawlings, Chris Kattan, Katrina Bowden and Leelee Sobieski, so it’s probably worth it to support the campaign just to find out if Dennis Hopper and Chris Kattan have the great onscreen chemistry you always suspected they would. Barring that, rewards include your usual DVDs, digital copies, T-shirts, and posters, although for $100 you can visit Hopper’s compound in Venice, California (transportation not included, of course). For $1,500 you can also Skype with Dean Stockwell as he tells you Dennis Hopper stories, and for $8,700 you can Skype with Yellen, Williams, Rawlings, Bisset, and Kattan. They’ll be discussing The Last Film Festival, though, so sadly you can’t ask Kattan to do a dramatic reading from that Mr. Peepers screenplay that was making the rounds a few years ago. Well, you could, but it would be awkward. The Kickstarter trailer for The Last Film Festival is below.