HILO, Hawaii — A comedy film shot entirely on the Big Island made its way to Amazon Prime’s video streaming website.
The film, titled, “Spit: The Story of a Caveman and a Chicken,” was released on Amazon in December, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Friday.
It was produced by Big Island residents Jonathan Stimac and Ryan Johnston. Stimac said the comedy was inspired by a “SpongeBob Squarepants” episode that featured live-action black-and-white clips depicting cavemen.
“The look of it, of the cavemen, was something we’d never seen before,” Stimac said.
Little speaking occurs in the film. Johnston said it was intended to tell a simple story augmented by stunning footage of the Big Island’s natural beauty.
“We want to do for the Big Island what Peter Jackson and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies did for New Zealand,” Stimac said, citing Jackson’s J.R.R. Tolkien adaptations that were shot in New Zealand and created a tourism boom based on the trilogy’s landscapes.
The film follows a caveman portrayed by Kona actor Jesse Logan and his companion chicken. The chicken was played by three different birds, but Stimac said one named Puck is featured most.
“Puck was born to play this role,” Stimac said, adding that in one scene the bird naturally fell asleep on Logan’s chest.
The film won a Gold Kahuna at the Honolulu Film Awards in 2013.
“At the heart of it is, we want to show the island as a backdrop, but not be intrusive,” Stimac said. “We don’t want to disrespect the Hawaiian community.”
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Information from: Hawaii Tribune-Herald, http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/
