Javier Badillo Serves Up Galactic Corncakes With His Sci-Fi Musical Short

Javier Badillo spent his twenties traveling Southeast Asia as part of his punk band, LyMe, soaking up culture and meeting all kinds of people — and is pouring it all into his upcoming sci-fi musical comedy short “Lupe Q and the Galactic Corn Cake.” 

Badillo has assembled a stellar team including SFX artist and producer Dallas Harvey, who has created digital and practical effects for shows like The Exorcist and his own genre films, director of photography Andy Brown, who has worked in the camera department on films like The Revenant, and co-created the Star Wars web series Bucketheads, and mixed-media animator and comic book artist Oripoto. Badillo co-wrote the film with his wife Nat Marshik, an award-winning poet-turned-screenwriter.

When teen band leader Lupe Quezada (Sofia Skates)gets stuck in space, she uses her Latin heritage to kick alien butt. From punk rock to Venezuelan folk music, from a creepy worm-monster to a hilarious cooking scene with her grandma, this is a short that is nothing but original. Production on the five-minute film included the coordination of a giant alien monster puppet, created by DHFX Studio, hundreds of arepas, tons of special effects slime, and much more. The cast also features Sophia Chapdelaine, Tristan Miura and Magda Ochoa.

Javier Badillo on ‘Lupe Q and the Galactic Corncake’

“The tone of the Lupe world blends the thrills of urban teen sci-fi Attack the Block, with the good-natured parodic humor of Galaxy Quest,” Badillo says. He gave MovieMaker an exclusive sneak peek. Check out the teaser here.

The stand-alone short is scheduled to start its film festival run in the Fall, but also serves as a proof of concept for an ambitious feature, Lupe Q and the Galactic Earworms, which starts filming in late Summer. In the meantime, view more information on the production here.