Originating from a sketch director Mike Mort drew in a school book, with a set built in the filmmaker’s basement, Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice is a stop-motion labour-of-love and a homage to the over-the-top world of 80s action movies. Influenced by the likes of Evil Dead 2, all of the Rambo films, and the ‘creature’ work of Ray Harryhausen, Mort’s excessive shorts injects the often family-friendly world of stop-motion with guns and explosions, in what can only be described as what Die Hard would look like if it was made by Aardman Animation

“It had to contain a creature, and it had to contain guns, fire and explosions”

Starting the creative process as a two-man team (Mort along with model maker Dave Sethi), the director was really able to ramp-up production on his project when they were granted funding and their crew grew by another 11-12 people. With many hands now working on creating the Chuck Steel universe, Mort was really able to push ahead with the overblown action and aesthetic essential in making his film a success. “When I began making Raging Balls of Steel Justice the main idea was to make a typical ‘Hollywood’, 3 act, countdown/jeopardy film starring Chuck Steel, with the shortest run time I could”, Mort reveals in conversation with Short of the Week. “It had to contain a creature, and it had to contain guns, fire and explosions etc. The rest of the story line fell into place quite easily…The style of the film was heavily influenced by 80’s movies; the grading used, the lens flares, the soft focus. Whilst Raging Balls of Steel Justice is a stop-motion animation, Chuck Steel has been a fully formed character for a long time, so it was important to me that his first screen outing needed to aesthetically mimic the films of the 80’s from where he was essentially born”.

Now working on a feature-length Chuck Steel film entitled Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, which sees “the best goddamn cop on the force” team-up with vampire hunter Abraham Van Rental to battle an ancient race of drunken vampires (Trampires) that only attack inebriated citizens, it sounds like Mort and his team will be looking to bring another roller-coaster ride of action and adventure to the big screen. “Over the last 14 months we’ve undertaken a mammoth task”, says Mort, “this time last year we began working on puppets, and our art dept started designing and building props and sets. We turned on the cameras in July 2015, and as of today (15 Jan 2016) we’re roughly a 3rd of the way through the shoot, the rushes look great and our VFX team are now operating at 100% and doing an amazing job”. To follow the latest news on the progress of Night of the Trampires you can keep up-to-date through their production blog or Facebook and Twitter accounts.