How Much Money Did It Cost To Make A Killer Bean Forever

"Killer Bean Forever" is a 2009 movie made by Jeff Lew with a budget under a million dollars. Most of the work of the movie was done by Lew himself with the extra voice actors being: Vegas E. Trip (Killer Bean), Bryan Session (Detective Cromwell and Vagan) Matthew Tyler (Cappuccino) and David SJ Guilmette (Harry)

Production

The concept for Killer Bean came in a short produced by Jeff Lew in the late 1990s entitled "Killer Bean: The Interrogation", which was later called "Killer Bean 1". Jeff Lew intended this short only to teach himself animation, and it only received about 3000 hits. After practicing animation for about 2 years, Lew started work on "Killer Bean 2: The Party", a 7-minute short. "Killer Bean 2" took about 3 years to create, and was released on iFilm in 2000. In about 6 months, it received about a million views, which was significant before YouTube.^[4]

After receiving various calls from movie producers that never developed, Lew decided to make a full feature film himself. The first rough draft of the screen play took about 5 months. Previsualization (previz) took about one and a half years. One mistake Lew regretted was not making the concept art before previz, which meant that many of the previz shots could not be reused for final animation. Lew then posted an ad on Craigslist for voices, and auditioned about 20 people and cast four. The concept artist for the characters was Von Caberte.^{[5]["dead link"]} By July 2005, all preproduction was completed.

The film took about 5 years to create, with approximately 1 and half years in pre-production and 3 years in animation. "Killer Bean Forever" had approximately 1000 animated shots.^[1] Generally, animators are given 1–4 weeks to complete 1 shot, and thus to create 1000 shots would have taken 20 years. Lew thus used an inexpensive 2D motion capture system to speed up animation. (At the time, the cheapest 3D motion capture system was about $50,000.)^[6]

Plot

The film begins at a warehouse party with loud music that is attended solely by gangsters. At 2:30 AM, Killer Bean is at a nearby hotel trying to sleep, and makes a phone call asking them to turn down the music. The gangsters refuse, and Killer Bean confronts them. After the gangsters fire a shot at Killer Bean and miss, Killer Bean ends up killing every one of the gangsters in an acrobatic strewn battle. The last bean killed is revealed to be the nephew of Cappuccino, a mob boss.^[2]

One police officer, led by Detective Cromwell, investigate the warehouse shootings. The warehouse is known to be owned by Cappuccino, where Detective Cromwell has been trying to convict for years. As the police investigate, Vagan, a lieutenant of Cappuccino arrives at the warehouse. After discovering the massacre, Vagan, who runs guns for Cappuccino, quickly informs his boss what has happened and that Cappuccino is Killer Bean's next target. Due to Killer Bean's skill, Vagan suggests hiring mercenary soldiers to kill him.

Killer Bean receives an encrypted call from his boss warning him that he is being reckless and that the attack on the warehouse should have never happened, and that only the target should be killed. Killer Bean ensures his boss that the mission will succeed. Killer Bean goes to another of Cappuccino's warehouses but instead finds Vagan there, who attempts to kill him. The fight between Vagan and Killer Bean ends as a draw. Vagan leaves a note to Killer Bean which reads, "Shadow Bean, you are too late.".

Killer Bean later goes to a bar across the street where Detective Cromwell finds him. Cromwell suggests they work together to bring Cappuccino down, but Killer Bean refuses his help. Later, Cromwell finds the note referencing the "Shadow Bean". After a call to police intelligence, Cromwell discovers that the Shadow Beans was a private organization that carried out secret government operations, but allegedly disbanded years ago.

Killer Bean locates a third warehouse thanks to Cromwell, hoping to find Cappuccino there. After killing the gangsters there, Killer Bean is confronted by mercenaries hired by Vagan. The mercenaries fail, but afterwards, Vagan is able to capture Killer Bean. Cappuccino interrogates Killer Bean asking him why he wants to kill him but receives no answers. Killer Bean escapes, and then reveals that he is not after Cappuccino, but rather after Vagan. Cappuccino is then shot by Vagan, killing him. Killer Bean explains that he has been sent to kill Vagan, a former Shadow Bean whose code name is Dark Bean. Dark Bean had betrayed the Shadow Beans and had stolen their secret database. Dark Bean then explains that the Shadow Agency had degenerated from an honorable agency into simply guns for hire and that he was ordered to supply weapons to criminals. Dark Bean claims to have left the Shadow Agency only with the intel belonging to him and run guns for Cappuccino so that he could be knowledgeable of all weapon transfers and thus could fight crime on his own. He informs Killer Bean that the Shadow Agency sees Killer Bean as a loose cannon and sent him to die; even if he could kill Vagan, they'd get rid of him as well. Killer Bean doesn't believe him, and kills Dark Bean when he attempts to shoot Killer Bean first. However, when Dark Bean is killed by Killer Bean, he is deactivated from the Shadow Agency.

Detective Cromwell witnesses the entire scene, and calls the entire police department to descend to the scene. There is a confrontation between the police and Killer Bean but Detective Cromwell diffuses the situation. Detective Cromwell offers protection for Killer Bean in exchange for information on the Shadow Agency. Killer Bean allows himself to be arrested, allowing him time to think about his next course of action against the incoming threat. Meanwhile, the Shadow Agency has dispatched another Shadow Bean named Jet Bean to kill Killer Bean. Jet Bean, an assassin from the east, is one of the Shadow Agency's top Shadow Beans.

Killer Bean is taken to prison, but Jet Bean manages to kill every police officer except Cromwell who had already left and found Killer Bean in his cell. Killer Bean explains to Jet Bean that the Shadow Agency has gone criminal, but Jet Bean doesn't believe him. In the last fight scene, Killer Bean kills Jet Bean with much effort. Killer Bean then contacts the Shadow Agency on Jet Bean's cell phone, and they suggest Killer Bean come in to "talk things over". Killer Bean says he will come in, but it won't be for talk. The film ends with Killer Bean finding a cache of police weapons, and driving off to confront the Shadow Agency.

You can see the transcript of the movie in here.

Cast and Characters

Vegas E. Trip as Killer Bean, the anti-hero of the film, an extremely effective pistol dual-wielding assassin with a dry sense of humor
Bryan Session as Detective Cromwell, a no-nonsense, clever police detective
Matthew Tyler as Cappuccino, a crime lord
David Guilmette as the leader of the Shadow Agency^[3]
Jeff Lew as Jet Bean and various beans

Character Concept Art