Hawaii-born filmmaker Albert Pyun, who directed cult films like “The Sword and the Sorcerer,” “Radioactive Dreams,” “Cyborg,” and the original 1990 direct-to-video “Captain America” film, has died.
Pyun reportedly had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and dementia in recent years but kept working on projects up until his death.
His wife, Cynthia Curnan, shared the news on social media, writing: “I sat with him for his last breath that sounded like he was releasing the weight of the world.”Â
The Matt Salinger-led “Captain America” was originally going to be made for $6 million, but the budget was cut in half midway through production. Pyun told Las Vegas Weekly: “It was a miracle the production didn’t shut down and fall apart. So we just shot as fast as possible and used that momentum to finish the shoot.”
His most commercially successful film was 1982’s “The Sword and the Sorcerer” which grossed $39 million from a production budget of just $4 million.
Various tributes to Pyun have begun appearing online, including this excerpt from an interview with Christopher Lambert who spoke about Pyun’s skill at pulling off the insane feat of shooting features in just a matter of days.
Christopher Lambert loved Albert Pyun – and he sums up why Albert was so special in less than a minute. pic.twitter.com/sOzIABv7Aa
— Justin Decloux (@DeclouxJ) November 27, 2022
Source: Vanity Fair, Variety
