Stun Creative Makes Leap to Feature Films, with Help from Van Damme

Following the massive success (over 69 million view in less than 3 months) of Volvo’s “The Epic Split” ad starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, it was inevitable that the action star would make a comedic comeback. That comeback also marks Stun Creative’s first foray into feature filmmaking, with the comedy Welcome to the Jungle.

Agency co-founders Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein serve as executive producers on Van Damme’s comedic debut, which was directed by Stun Creative’s Rob Meltzer and stars, in additon to Van Damme, Adam Brody, Megan Boone, Kristen Schaal, Rob Huebel and Dennis Haysbert. Given Stun Creative’s track record with TV promos, as well as their 2013 Webby Award winning online series Presidential Clippings, the leap to filmmaking isn’t such a huge surprise.

The above trailer is worth a few chuckles, unsurprisingly mostly coming from Van Damme playing on his own action star persona. Jean-Claude in a comedic role seems so obvious that it’s almost hard to believe no one has given it a pass before, and Welcome to the Jungle should gain a lot of momentum from “The Epic Split.” A quick search for the film brought up a Village Voice review entitled “Welcome to the Jungle is Satanically Bad,” so you may want to wait before shelling out to see this one in theaters — although “satanically bad” doesn’t necessarily equal “not funny” and I’m pretty sure the guys behind the movie weren’t exactly trying to make high art. Welcome to the Jungle is currently slated for a February 7th release, both in theaters and on-demand. If you just can’t get enough Van Damme, stick around for behind-the-scenes footage after the jump. continued…

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