EDM producer/musician/lovable-weirdo Flying Lotus has been teasing his forthcoming directorial debut for a few months now. Back in August, he unveiled a short film called “Royal” at the Sundance NEXT Fest in L.A with accompanying branded barf bags. As it turns out, that was merely a fragment of a larger project calling Kuso (which Urban Dictionary defines as a “Japanese all-purpose curse word”).
We now know who some of the “talented folks” he’s working with are, the most notable being Tim Heidecker. And while the bizarrely humored Heidecker has done some serious indie film work (The Comedy), given this teaser for “Royal”—and, by extension, Kuso—this looks like it will likely be more in line with his Tim & Eric work. Especially since the press release says Heidecker plays “the boundary-illiterate ‘Phil,’ who spends most of his time trolling ‘B,’ aka Buttress, along with her awful trans-dimensional roommates.”
If the idea behind the film isn’t obviously apparent to you from that preview, maybe the official logline will help: “Broadcasting through a makeshift network of discarded televisions, KUSO is tangled up in the aftermath of Los Angeles’ worst quake nightmare.” It probably should come as no surprise that David Willis (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) and cult animator David O’Reilly lent a few hands with the script. Nor should you be shocked to recall that Flying Lotus (real name Steve Ellison) got his start composing music for Adult Swim.
Other collaborators in the cast include former adult film star Lexington Steele, funkmaster George Clinton, and comedians Anders Holm, David Firth, and Byron Bower. Kuso is currently filming in Los Angeles, where casting is ongoing.