Live Action Anime Film to premiere April 21
By Stephanie Meditz
news@queensledger.com
Greenpoint-based film studio Pure Magic Pictures’ newest movie, “Skye Hoshi: Anime Girl,” will soon fall out of posters and into reality.
On April 21, the film will have a digital premiere on Pure Magic Pictures’ streaming platform.
Skye Hoshi: Anime Girl follows the laser-gun happy anime character Skye Hoshi as she falls out of her poster, comes to life and tries to return home before her anime is destroyed.
“It is a super fun, fantasy film with lots of comedy and a lot of heart,” writer and director Kalani Hubbard said.“One of the main themes is just finding the beauty in the mundane, finding the beauty in your everyday life and making those parts of your life magical,” he said.
Olivia Roldan will play the titular character, and Hunter Kohl will play Atom, the lackadaisical comic store employee whose help she enlists.
The film was shot in various locations in Brooklyn, as well as Everyone Comics x Collectibles in Long Island City and the Javits Center during the Anime NYC convention.
As a writer and director, Hubbard draws inspiration from the ‘80s and ‘90s classics that he grew up with, such as “Back to the Future” and the Indiana Jones franchise.
“Those movies gave me the feeling of magic that I always want to give people when I make movies,” he said. “And so anytime I make something, I try to distill that feeling that I always got watching these movies and infuse that into the movies that I create.”
Pure Magic Pictures co-owner and Skye Hoshi: Anime Girl producer Stefanie Hubbard was involved with every aspect of the film’s production.
It was precisely this feeling of magic that inspired both the idea and the title of Pure Magic Pictures.
After Kalani and Stefanie Hubbard got married, they started a video production company and learned the ins and outs of filming, editing, producing, audio and visual effects and the like.
They started to make original films in 2019, and they have made three movies and several different TV shows since then.
They come out with new releases on the Pure Magic Pictures streaming platform almost every week.
Pure Magic Pictures is both an independent, mom-and-pop film studio and a streaming service to which fans can subscribe.
“The inspiration behind that name is that feeling that you get when you watch a movie that just gives you that feeling of pure magic when you watch it. But it’s also the experience that we have when we’re on set making the movies. It’s a really magical experience for us, the process all along the way,” Stefanie said.
Originally from the Bay Area in California, the Hubbards have lived in Greenpoint for eight years, and they have become well-acquainted with the Brooklyn film community.
“[Brooklyn] just feels completely like home to us. We absolutely love living here. And we have met so many amazing people along the way,” Stefanie said. “I really do feel like the people we work with are also very passionate artists who are here for the love of it, and so when we all get together and make things to
