Sascha Zimmermann - Writer / Director / Filmmaker





NEWS August 24, 2010 TV screening for 25 CENT Text.. August 20, 2010 Re-cut for LILLI Text... July 28, 2010 Five Lamps in Derby, UK Last night I got lucky with another requested screening of my short film 25 CENT in Derby, England. It was shown at the Five Lamps Film night at Derby Quad. They screened it earlier this year but it seems that there was a request from guests who asked for "'that movie with the girls in bunny outfits who rob a Gas station". So, thanks for enjoying my short - again :) And of course thanks for another showing at the Five Lamps Films. It's a shame I couldn't be there but my friend and co-writer Tommy Draper was there to represent the film with a little info. We both can't wait to present our "still in post-production" short film called LILLI. I'm pretty sure we will offer Five Lamps the film as one the first screeners. July 24, 2010 First cut ready AND another festival The first cut of LILLI is now complete. Now I have to watch it again and again and again and show it some people to get feedback. So far it works pretty well and it is really funny but in a weird kind of way. Second thing: 25 CENT has been accepted to the Sea Breeze Film Festival in Tampa, USA! It has its screening today! Check out their website. July 20, 2010 LILLI stills... finally Here are the first stills from my upcoming short film LILLI. Nothing is colour corrected yet – these are directly out of the editing system. Enjoy! July 10, 2010 Filmfest Weiterstadt 25 Cent has been officially selected for the upcoming Open-Air Filmfest Weiterstadt. The festival takes place from the 12th - 16th of August. Check out their website! July 8, 2010 SUPERHERO BLOG I created a web series with producer Stefan Gieren. It's called SUPERHERO BLOG. The first season will have 20 episodes each 2 mins long (or short depending on how you look at it). It's about a German youth who travels to the USA to get into a trainee program to become a Superhero sidekick. I had this idea in my head since a few years and after I saw Joss Whedon’s ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog’ I thought: ‘Hey, that actually works - maybe it's the time to drag my idea around a producer’. So I started working on the main idea. Then I saw the first trailer of Kick-Ass and I was like ‘WHAT?????’ So, I met with my producer at the Berlinale and we talked about the SUPERHERO BLOG and decided to work on it together. Stefan came up with lots of great story ideas and later that evening he sent me a one page story. And now, a few weeks later, we are finished and it's fantastic. But even better: Out of more than 60 submissions for a first project call First Motion finally selected seven innovative ideas which will be granted funding and SUPERHERO BLOG is one of them! That’s right, they actually give us money to produce the SUPERHERO BLOG. It is part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument). Besides First Motion there is the Baltic Sea Region Programme and the Hamburger Filmförderung involved! We go into production in October 2010! June 29, 2010 Best of... Tonight 25 Cent will screened once more over in England! This time at the Best Of SpeechMotion film night. We were screened at SpeechMotion once (a few months ago) but this is the FINAL ‘Best Of’ and my tiny film is one of them. Thanks guys at SpeechMotion - that’s awesome! June 28, 2010 Shooting LILLI Right, we have finished shooting the 2nd and 3rd act of LILLI in the woods. The 1st act (the interior scene) will be shot in a couple of weeks. So, how was the shoot? All in all we got everything we needed to make a film - that's good so far. Shooting with the three actresses was lots of fun; the crew were fantastic - even after I ruined their football world cup game on TV (Germany vs. England!). At least we had a radio. The only thing that really bugged me was THE WOODS! The sun was shining bright (too bright), it was hot as hell and YES I got bitten by 5 bloody ticks! How was my weekend, you ask? Friggin' awesome! Well, after the five bites I was in the emergency room twice and had to visit two more Doctors. One tick was so deep in my leg that they couldn't get it out - SO they cut it open, dragged that little bastard out and stitched me together, for real! So, thx to the woods! And never ever again! Good night! P.S.: Stay tuned for some stills and photos! June 25, 2010 LILLI Only a couple of days away from a weekend of shooting the exteriors for LILLI. Cast and creware ready to go. Very excited to see how it will translate from script to screen. Had a very very long meeting with out camera guy today to discuss how and what to shoot. We got tons of papers scribbled full with ideas, shots and weird looking stick-fugers. Tomorrow I'll get the first trunk full of equipment. We will get the rest on friday. June 21, 2010 LILLI filming starts soon This weekend, 26 + 27 June, LILLI is being filmed out the woods near Hamburg. We got a lovely little team around and will have lots of fun. Production shots, promo shots will be posted soon I hope. Synopsis now added to the synopsis page. Check it out. June 10, 2010 New short film coming along As we have a tiny delay on the THE MAID short film we (Tommy and me) decided to write something new to shoot. The cast of my short film 25 CENT have waited 2 years (once again, sorry) for a new project for written especially for them. But, finally the wait is over! The script is called LILLI and it's a very very black comedy. If the weather finally decides to stay in a good mood we will shoot the short at the end of the month in a forest near Hamburg. I won't tell too much about the story ‘cause it should be a surprise. BUT just imagine three girls carrying a shovel and a plastic body bag through the woods and you’ll have some idea what’s coming your way very, very soon! 25th May 2010 Five Lamps Films Oonce again 5 Lamps Films screened Little Secrets. It wasn't submitted this time but Tommy Draper (my amazingly talented co-writer) was in the audience and, as luck would have it, had a copy of the movie on him. During the interval a friend of his asked if they could play it. Naturally the nice folks at 5 Lamps said 'yes, of course, we love that movie' and it finished the night. 14th May 2010 We are DEEP FRIED Q. What do Mars Bars, Pizza, Kebabs and Little Secrets have in common? A. They've all been deep fried! Yes, crap joke I know but Little Secrets has been accepted into the Deep Fried Film Festival in Scotland. For information on the festival please click here! And, if the film festival wasn't enough excitement, The Maid screenplay is almost ready. A read through has happened with the actors so just a few tweeks to the script remain then we're ready to go. Watch this space for updates on the production. 2nd May 2010 Bulgaria here we are! LITTLE SECRETS is in another film festival! Hurrah! This time it has made the final selection at the Film Palace Festival in Balchik, Bulgaria (I think this is the first outing for Little Secrets in Bulgaria) on 19.06.10 - 26.06.10. No more details of the when's and where's Secrets will be played but here is the link for more information about the festival and the movies already selected. 26th April 2010 And more... and more... and more... 25 CENT at the Int. Short Film Festival Detmold! That is a huge honour I must say. I've waited a llllllllloooooonnnnnnnngggggggg time for that opportunity. The 6th International Short Film Festival Detmold takes place from 10th - 13th June 2010! But that's not it - no, no, NO! Also we're selected from our friendly neighbours the Switzerland people :) I'm happy to announce that we are in the official selection of the Time Film Festival! Anyone who wanted to see 25 CENT with FRENCH subtitles should be there on June 17th – 19th 2010 an enjoy the film. And I’m still not finished! Sit down, keep your eyes open and read! A few weeks ago 25 CENT was shown at the Tanke Shorts 2010 - and we didn't win, but at least made a nice 3rd place. The winner film is called CLINT - a very, very cool short by Hamburg based filmmakers. If you every get the chance to see it please do! What else? 25 CENT also is in the official selection at the 1st West-Östliches FilmFestival in Berlin. It's a new festival and definitely worth visiting. So make sure to be in Berlin between April 30th and May 2nd 2010. And that’s all for now folks! 21st April 2010 And... another screening! 25 CENT will be screened at the breiPott Cafè in Berlin during the ClipAward-Kurzfilm-Bundle. It’s on the 3rd of Mai. Make sure to be in Berlin to watch a bunch of cool short films. 20th April 2010 Another screening... 25 CENT on the big screen - AGAIN! It will be shown at the HFC Kurzfilmnacht in Ilmenau on the 2nd of June. It’s gonna be a long film night with lots of cool shorts. So, don't miss it! 19th April 2010 Short Film Corner - Cannes 2010 LITTLE SECRETS will be screened at the Short Film Corner in Cannes this year! Hopefully I'll find someone who wants to buy it. Fingers crossed! 14th April 2010 Hello... Spain! LITTLE SECRETS has been accepted into the 8th Annual Festival de Curtmetratges de Manlleu. It was one of the two thousand entries this year so we are very happy to make the official selection. For details about the festival please follow the link. Little Secrets is entered in ShortFilms Video section, let's hope it does well when in... competition. Check their website! If you're in Spain on 27/05/2010 get yourself over to Auditori Caixa Manlleu between 18.00 - 20.00 to see LITTLE SECRETS get its showing. 10th April 2010 Manchester here we are! 25 CENT made it into the Manchester European Short Film Festival - also known as Kinofilm. The festival takes place from 27th April till 2nd March 2010. Check out their website! 19th March 2010 The Maid shot with Canon 7D Oliver Menebröcker, the Cameraman who I worked with on LITTLE SECRETS has just called me and said “I have just brought a Canon 7D, let’s shoot something, anything, I don’t care as long as it’s a moving picture” and I thought ‘hell, why not?’ At least I have got someone to blame if the 7D doesn’t turn out to be as good as promised :) So with this new camera and a new script in my hand we have decided to shoot THE MAID. Ok, what about the casting for THE MAID? Well, thats pretty easy - just give two amazing actors a call and we are ready to go. I offered scottisch actor Ray Strachan the part of Max and long time friend/actress Fiana de Guzman the eponymous roll of the Maid. Fiana did a phenomenal job in LITTLE SECRETS and scarred the hell out of a lot of people druing the screenings at certain film festivals. I instantly thought she might be suited to the role as the Maid with a gun (oops, have I said too much?) 15th March 2010 Draft for The Maid is finished I'm not quite sure how Tommy did it, but he wrote 3 drafts for THE MAID in such a short time frame. I guess he never sleeps or has a ghost writer - I dunno! Fact is I got a 3rd draft on my desk now and its just excellent to read. Surpsingly the story is rather simple but effective. It's a one man cast (on screen at least), a hotel room and a mobile phone. Further information can be found in the WORK section for it. Check it out HERE! 5th March 2010 The Maid Cause I don't already have enough to do I decided that it might be the right time to squeeze another tiny tiny short film in. Over a year ago I found a nice little script on www.simplyscripts.com called: Despair is as simple as a phone call written by Michel J. Duthin. The idea behind it was fantastic but the script needed a re-write. So I asked Michel‘s permission to do that and handed the original over to my longtime writer Tommy Draper. 1st March 2010 The long awaited RECALL sci-fi short Yes, finally after trying to get the funding together for my sci-fi noir project THE RECALL a well known TV channel (can't say more at this time) jumped on board and will co-produce. So we kinda got half the funding now. In a couple of days the film councle BKM will decide to fund us or not. Fingers crossed of course because this might be co-writer Tommy Draper and mine most important project so far. 23th February 2010 Featured at Speechmotion LITTLE SECRET is the "feaured film" tonight at the Speechmotion Festival in London! Horray! I felt very honoured after I read an online article that I'm Speechmotions "favourite German Filmmaker". Feels weird (in a good way), but to be honest I will sleep very well tonight knowing someone out there likes my stuff. 22th February 2010 Another festival for... LITTLE SECRETS is being shown very soon at Odder's Mini Cine Picture Show. Odder's were looking for odd movies on the theme of 'love' for their Valentines Showcase and Little Secrets has been selected to be shown. Event time and date: Sunday 21st Feb 2010, 20.00 till 22.00 Location: Bar Odder (upstairs), 14 Oxford Street (opposite BBC), M...anchester, England Tickets and Popcorn are FREE! If you're in the area drop by and see the other great movies being shown and give Little Secrets some support. 15th February 2010 Something for free 25 CENT is having a screening at Five Lamps Films Festival this month. The event is held at Derby-Quad in the UK on the 23rd Feb at 20.00. Tickets are free so drop by and watch mine and other short movies (one of them is Tommy Draper's Same Room Same Time) and have a good time in Derby's finest cinema. 28th January 2010 Again... 25 CENT 25 CENT has been accepted to the Tanke Shots Festival. 25th January 2010 More festivals... Both, LITTE SECRETS and 25 CENT have been accepted into another festival. This time it's in the Independent Days Filmfest, Days Filmfest, a place for low/no budget movies, the perfect place for both films to be shown! The festival is from 21-25 April, not many more details to give right now but check the Website for updates. 16th January 2010 25 Cent at Filmament 25 CENT’s festival play never seems to end! 25 CENT has been selected into another festival, this time it’s the Filmament Festival! I don't have a screening date yet, but will post it as soon as possible. 10th January 2010 25 Cent at SpeechMotion And another short film fest for 25 CENT. The SpeechMotion film festival in London, UK took my little movie under his wing and screens it on the 26th of January 2010. Make sure to check their website and join their facebook group! 6th January 2010 Happy New Year I know its kind of super early to mention but this coming September LITTE SECRETS will be shown at the Loch Ness Film Festival in Scotland. Check out their website! 31st December 2009 Just when you think the year os over... LITTE SECRETS got accepted at the Kontrast Film Festival This is a HUGE honor I can tell you! I've waited for years to get accepted there - and finally there I am. This is a very good start for my latest short film. The festival is from 29.01.2010 - 31.01.2010. Check their website! 25 CENT sneaked its way into another festival called Emotion Filmfest. The festival takes place in Berlin on the 16th of January 2010! Actually this is our first festival in the New Year. Make sure to check out their website! 19th December 2009 25 CENT... again! 25 CENT enters a nice UK film festival called Odder’s Mini Cine Picture Show! The film gets screened on the 20th December. Wish me luck! It's been a long time since I talked about new projects. BUT there are some - in matter of fact lots. Besides three finished feature film screenplays there is also a new short to come very soon. We, my writing partner Tommy and I, are trying something completly different this time. I'll keep you up to date! But first things first: Merry Christmas to all our friends and collaborators! 12th December 2009 Little Secrets wins festival / 25 CENT on the "small" screen LITTLE SECRETS is pleased to announce that it won the Short Film Slam Lübeck. It was up against 10 short movies but had its most intense audience reaction so far. Our award: A big golden piggy bank which found a nice place at my office. Finally 25 CENT gets screened on ON3-SÜDWILD SÜDWILD at the BR (Bayrischer Rundfunk) - TV channel. The short film night is on the 18th of December and starts at 1.05 AM (yep, that's late... or early, whatever you prefer). Get some popcorn and enjoy a 5 hour (!!!) short film marathon. We are very lucky to be a part of it. 29th November 2009 More festivals to come 25 CENT made it into another German short film festival. The König Pilsener Web Film Award. As always I'm very grateful for your support. Please CHECK HERE and vote for my tiny (but brilliant!) short film. Of course there is an award to win and lots of cash to get your next film made. König Pilsener sponsors 10.000 Euros! German superstar Til Schweiger is part of the jury! But that's not enough. The same short film also got selected for a new UK short film festival called Brain Wash - Short Films At The Wesbury. Screening is on the 30th of November! Go get your tickets! 24th November 2009 Kampf der Künste and on3-Südwild Kinonacht 2009 LITTLE SECRETS came 2nd at the Short Film Slam - Kampf der Künste festival last Friday. Apparently it was very close to coming 1st but just missed out. Not a bad start to LITTLE SECRETS tour on the festival circuit, next time we'll go for 1st place. 25 CENT has been selected for the on3-Südwild Kinonacht. The BR channel shows the best short films from 2009 and the winner gets a huge amount of cash to producer his next short film, so fingers crossed! The event takes place at the "Neues Gabriel Kino" on the 11th December in Munich. Make sure you get your ticket! 17th November 2009 A few things to say... 25 CENT has been selected for another festival. The short will be screened at the zwergWERK - Oldenburg Short Film Days which runs from the 26th - 29th of November in Oldenburg. Make sure to get your tickets and enjoy a bunch of excellent short films. The other thing is: My latest short LITTLE SECRETS gets its German premiere THIS Friday (20th of November) at the Zeise Kinos in Hamburg. It will be screened at the Kampf der Künste - Short Film Slam! The whole cast and crew will be there and ready talk about how we managed to shoot the film. 12th November 2009 Nominated for Best Short Film 25 CENT was nominated for Best Short Film at the Corby International Short Film Festival in the UK. 11th November 2009 LITTLE SECRETS world premiere in the UK LITTLE SECRETS got its world premiere at Derby Film 2009 at Derby Quad on 27th October. It was well received by the audience who laughed and squirmed in equal measures. 4th November 2009 25 CENT in Corby, UK 25 CENT got selected for the FIRST Corby International Short Film Festival! 1st November 2009 And the 3rd place goes to... 25 CENT made the 3rd place at the Barfilmtage in Coburg! I've won a lovely golden cocktail cherry award and a trip to the Berlinale in February 2010. Thx for everything and see you next year at the Barfilmtage 2010. 26th October 2009 25 CENT at the TU Kaiserslautern 25 CENT is being screened on the 28th October at the TU Kaiserslautern as a supporting film before A SCANNER DARKLY. This is a great honor as I'm a huge fan of Philip K. Dick! 25th October 2009 LITTLE SECRETS is now on IMDB Now its official: We're online! Check out the IMDB Little Secrets page! 21st October 2009 25 CENT enters Barfilmtage 2009 The festival directors are very nice to us and give this tiny little short more chances to get shown on the big screen. We have been selected for the Barfilmtage in Coburg! 15th October 2009 25 CENT wins KurzKunstFestival in Mainz My film rocked the festival and and came home with first place! Thank you very much! Check it out! 10th October 2009 LITTLE SECRETS at Derby Film 2009 Our new short LITTLE SECRETS managed it to get into the Derby Film 2009 festival in Derby, England! It's a fine little festival organised by FIVE LAMPS FILMS. The film will be screened at the Quad Cinema on the 27th October 2009. Its' officially the WORLD PREMIERE for LITTLE SECRETS! That was a surprise - but even more surprisingly is that my co-writer Tommy actually lives there; well, obviously not IN the Quad Cinema but in the city. So, I am pretty sure he will be there and watch the film with the audience. If you’re lucky you can catch him and fire questions at him - don't be shy and ask whatever you want! 9th October 2009 And two more festivals for 25 CENT 25 CENT entered the KurzKunstFestival Mainz and gets screened on the 11th October 2009 at the Lomo Lounge in Mainz. We also got selected for another festival in Mainz: FILMZ - Festival des deutschen Kinos. You can watch the film there on the 24th and the 29th November 2009. 4th October 2009 25 CENT request from Manchester European Short Film Festival Today I recived an email from the Manchester European Short Film Festival. They wrote that my short film was recently recommended to them by the director of another festival. That's the very first festival submission in the UK for my little short. God save the queen - please! 2nd October 2009 25 CENT in India Now we're going worldwide. 25 CENT got accepted at the Global Cinema Festival in India - yes, India! That’s the fantastic news. Check out their website! 28th September 2009 LITTLE SECRETS enters another Short Film Slam LITTLE SECRETS has been accepted at the Short Film Slam in Lübeck. It will be shown on the 11th December at the Filmhaus. 19th September 2009 BISCHELSBACH GOES DIGITAL There is another exciting feature film project going on. Check the website of BISCHELSBACH GOES DIGITAL! And here you can vote for our project! 17th September 2009 LITTLE SECRETS enters Short Film Slam LITTLE SECRETS has been accepted into its first film festival. It will be shown at the 'Kampf der Künste - Short Film Slam Hamburg' on the 20th November at the Zeise Kinos. 15th September 2009 FIERCE script finished We have finally got the 2nd draft of the feature film script FIERCE finished. Took Tommy and me lots of time and sleepless nights but what we got is worth the blood, sweat and tears! FIERCE is a violent revenge drama focusing on a very bad, long night in the life of Graham Pryce, a young man released from a 5 year Prison sentence after a drugs and reckless driving conviction which left his younger brother partially paralysed. I'll hand the script over to my agent today and see what comes our way. We have already got an interesting casting list but I can't say much more at this time. More exciting news coming soon! 13th September 2009 SHUT on FACEBOOK There is a Fan site on FACEBOOK for my feature film SHUT. CLICK HERE and become a FAN! 11th September 2009 LITTLE SECRETS is finished Finally my new short film LITTLE SECRETS is out of post-production and ready for some festivals. Actually it's already send out this morning to 7 European film festivals. The film was a collaboration between UK based screenwriter Tommy Draper and me. For all who don't know it yet: LITTLE SECRETS is a thriller about a woman who locks up her boyfriend in a basement to make something very important clear. I'll try to finish the trailer for the website as soon as possible. Please visit us on FACEBOOK, become a FAN and tell your friends about it. 8th August 2009 25 CENT on TV 25 CENT gets screened on ON3-SÜDWILD at the BR (Bayrischer Rundfunk) - TV channel. It is showing as part of their Short Film Night in December 2009. I'll keep you informed about the actual time and date. Breaking News from the Strasbourg Film Festival As you all know (if you’ve been reading my News Updates): 25 CENT made it into the The Strasbourg International Film Fest. But I got even better news a few days ago - 25 CENT got officially nominated for the three categories: BEST SHORT, BEST SCRIPT, BEST EDITING 30th August 2009 25 CENT enters Filmzeit Kaufbeuren festival + Another actor for The Recall 25 CENT made it officially into the next competition at the Filmzeit Kaufbeuren Film Festival. Check out their website! Critically acclaimed actor Ray Fearon ssigned on for The Recall to play the part of C.F. Cooper. Ray Fearon is best known for the lead character in the movie "Lulu & Jimi" as well as for his tv series performances in "Doctors", "Coronation Street", "As if" and so on. Check his profile at IMDB. 18th August 2009 25 CENT enters International Short Film Festival "Bunter Hund" in Munich And another selection for 25 CENT. My short entered the competition at the International Short Film Festival Munich. "Bunter Hund" is Munich's independent Short Film Festival. Check out their website! They present recent German, European and non-European productions from October 15-18, 2009. It's the audience that decides which film of the international competition is awarded with the sought-after Short Film Award "Hasso". 14th August 2009 25 CENT enters Strasbourg Film Fest in France Now its official: 25 CENT got excepted in the short film category at The Strasbourg International Film Fest! The film festival is from 28th August - 6th September 2009 and they will show approximately 25 feature films and about 160 shorts - in all genres. 10th August 2009 SHUT at Amazon + The 2nd draft of FIERCE Only a few more days! My feature film SHUT will be released on the 20th of August and available for sale in DVD stores. So - go go GO! and buy a piece of me :) Check out the DVD at amazon! Well, well - now look at this really, I mean REALLY big German FSK 18 logo on the front cover of the DVD! This is the new ‘BRILLIANT’ idea from the German FSK: Destroy the covers of DVD movies. For all the people who don't know it: It's not a sticker it’s actually PRINTED ON the DVD cover! Also, work has just begun on the 2nd draft of FIERCE. Once the 2nd draft is complete we will be trying to find actors to sign up to it, more updates regarding Fierce will be posted on here in the coming months. 7th August 2009 The Recall My next short THE RECALL comes closer and closer. It will be a sci-fi noir thriller set in near future with lots of VFX and stuff . We finally got a well known costume designer and set designer on board. And the first actors also signed on: The lead character will be played by Philippe Brenninkmeyer and his counter part will be played by Fiana de Guzman. This mini-movie will be a large leap forward in terms of scale from what I've been used to directing and we (Tommy Draper and Me) have written this short as the prequel to a full-length sci-fi detective story that we hope to develop as a feature film in the future. 29th July 2009 Little Secrets Opening Credits My new short film LITTLE SECRETS is nearly finished. I'm only waiting for the final mix and then it's ready to watch. What I can do for you right now is show you the opening credits with the Bernhard Hermann-like music score by my regular composer Jan Dugge. The "simple" opening credits are my tribute to all the great Alfred Hitchcock films - and so is the music. Check it out on FACEBOOK and become a FAN! 19th July 19th, 2009 25 Cent request from festivals The Strasbourg International Film Fest as well as the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas (Texas, yes!!!) requested a copy of my tiny tiny short 25 CENT. The film is not in competion but they want to see it and consider it for their Film Filmfest. I wonder how the Texas people heard from a little German short flick - but hey, that's good news. 25th June 2009 25 Cent at Shorts At Moonlight And again another exciting festival update for 25 CENT. The film was chosen as official selection of the Shorts At Moonlight film festival. Yeeha! Check out their website: www.shortsatmoonlight.de 25 CENT will be shown on the 1st of august at the "Hofheim Zelt vor dem Museum". Short film programm starts at 18:30 Uhr 16th June 2009 Ball Breakers screenplay / SHUT DVD release Me and Tommy have finished the first draft of the upcoming short dark comedy BALL BREAKERS. Now comes the tricky part re-writing! That will take some time. The other thing is a bit more important: FINALLY my first feature film SHUT will be released on DVD in the German speaking region. Release date: Release date: 25th of June 2009 – make sure you see it! 7th June 2009 25 CENT at the Short Film Slam Lübeck Yes, yes, YES! Our little short found itself as an official selection at the Short Film Slam in Lübeck. The festival will be on the 12th of June. 4th June 2009 25 CENT cineman screening My short film 25 CENT will be shown at the Audimax 1 cinema in Hamburg - Harburg on the 16th of June. After the short they are screening a modern classic: Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - so two films for one price! Come and join us for a night of great movies! 31st May 2009 SHOWREEL online After hours of blood, sweat & tears I finished my new SHOWREEL. So, now the REEL button works and isn't fake anymore! Just click on it, enjoy the show and feel relaxed. Ladies and Gentlemen - good night! 18th May 2009 Stills from LITTLE SECRETS Here are some stills from my upcoming short film LITTLE SECRETS. We are in the final sound mixing process right now. Stay tuned for more! 14th May 2009 The Agency and me I finally did it! From now on I'll be represented by a fine agency called FilmArtists! I'm officially in the game now. BEWARE! Make sure to check out the FilmArtists webiste! 13th May 2009 And we are on FACEBOOK Visit our LITTLE SECRETS facebook site and become a FAN! Writer Tommy Draper and me are happy to answer question if you got one. Just klick HERE! 2nd May 2009 We don't stop: CrankCookieKurzfilmtage 2009 "25 CENT" just entered the CrankCookieKurzfilmtage contest. Well, that's another OFFICIAL SELECTION I would say. Check out the festivals website! April 29th, 2009 A wonderful visit at the 20th Century Fox Germany / Judgement Movie Night 2009 Yesterday I had a meeting at the 20th Century Fox in Frankfurt, Germany. This was the so called "kick off" for the 20th Century Fox Think Tank project - and lucky old me is a member. We talked about the expectations from the FOX and the expectations on us. The FOX people told us a lot about the film biz from a major studio and that they are looking for some new talent. We discussed projects we have in mind and they were very open to all this new ideas and stories. They asked for more project infos and maybe a script or an idea for new cross-media projects. So, I'll sit down the next days and get my head clear to present them my future projects and how they fit in :) We will see what happens next. I was lucky again cause I was the only one there with a produced and sold feature film (SHUT). They told me that they are really excited about reading my new stuff. I can say, that’s an honor! Sitting on the same table with all these cool FOX people who listened to what we have to say. That was pretty exciting. All in all, nobody knows how all this will end - but right now it looks pretty amazing. I got personal contact to them and they told me that we can always get in touch with them if we need help or just an eye to look over a script or whatever. I'll keep you informened! The other thing is that I am into the official selection of the Judgement Movie Night 2009 in Switzerland with my short 25 CENT. Check out their website! 25th April 2009 New project comes along. New project? Really? Yes, really! After the so called "success" of 25 CENT he three girls and me decided to come together once more for a new comedy project. I had a couple of ideas in mind and discussed them with UK based screenwriter Tommy Draper (this will be our second collaboration after “Little Secrets” – well, officially). After a few minutes of brainstorming we had a very nice idea for a short flick. Right now we try to bring it to paper. At least we have a "promising" working title: BALL BREAKERS 21st April 2009 Let's talk about CANNES shall we? Like every year we have the Cannes Filmfestival in france - so, fancy that: This year as well. And again I was very lucky (this "lucky thing" gets pretty weird by now -I mean, nobody is THAT lucky). OK, coming to the point: My cheap little short film 25 CENT got listed in the Cannes Short Film Corner catalogue! 10th April 2009 Hobnox Hot 100 and the 20th Century Fox Think Tank Please make sure to take a little of your time to vote for "25 Cent" at the Hobnox Hot 100 online festival. Check out here: The first meeting for the "20th Century Fox Think Tank" was announced. I will meet with them in Frankfurt on the 28th of April, can't wait to pitch them the sci-fi script called "The Recall". 3rd April 2009 "25 Cent" wins Audience Award and more Little Secrets Ladies and Gentlemen - yes, that’s right: After the FOX nomination for my little short flick "25 CENT" it won the Audiende Award at the Clip Award 2009 in Mannheim. Check out here: www.clipaward-mannheim.de And finally my latest short film "LITTLE SECRETS" found its way out of the editing room. The film now gets its score and the final sound mix. That was a hell of a cut I can say. The scenes are so intense which made it very hard for me to cut away from the characters, I could watch them act the whole day. Hope you enjoy the film as much as me making it. More updates in a couple of days about it. 29th March 2009 Critics and other things to worry about My film SHUT got an excellent critique at the genre films website www.maslohs.de. I mean - come on, we got 8,5 points out of 10. They wrote funny stuff like: SHUT is an Agatha Christie meets Guy Ritchie crossover and feels like Murder On The Orient Express on SPEED. I take that as a compliment - big time! Make sure to read the critic HERE! So, what else is new? What did I do the last couple of days??? Editing, editing and yes – editing!!! I’m still preparing to pitch the sci-fi project THE RECALL to the FOX people in the next month’s meeting in Frankfurt, I’m waiting for the first storyboards right now. I have got a couple of nice music layouts so far and a VERY, VERY good looking visual effects shot. Can't show or tell anything else at the moment because the project is totally confidential. Fingers crossed we get that thing made. 11th March 2009 SHUT Premiere and an article about me, myself and I Now is this great or what? I had an interview with the "Nordsee Zeitung" - the newspaper from my hometown Bremerhaven. It is so strange seeing my stupid face over half the page! It seems like many people have read the article: I got tons of emails today and a couple of phone calls from people who I thought were already dead! Surprising as well: I got quoted right! That's a rare thing in the “news” section. Writer / Reporter Rainer Donsbach did a very good job making me look good. It’s weird to see half my life written there down. I mean I'm turning 32 years soon but I still don't have a so-called midlife crisis. People who know me would say ‘He got no time for a crisis’. But that's not true. I just have a huge picture in my head of what to do and what to reach in life. I guess that helps me not go crazy and tell everybody: Oh my God, I am over 30 now - my life ends HERE! Just click on the picture to read the whole article. And YES, it’s in German! Second thing is: TODAY is the cinema premiere of my feature film SHUT in Kiel at the "Neues Studio". Have to get ready soon and take a car to hit to the cinema. It's the first time that I watch the film with complete strangers in the audience. Fingers crossed that I don't get hit by a stone! More updates about the premiere tomorrow. See you at the movies! 3rd March 2009 A few little secrets... I’m still editing ‘Little Secrets’. Need a few more days to bring this little flick come to life! I know waiting is the hardest part (well, that’s what Tom Petty used to sing all the time), so enjoy a couple of screenshots for now. As soon as I am ready the film goes to Frankfurt to get its score composed by Jan Dugge. 23rd February 2009 The FOX Award and Comic Books The last couple of days were like hell - well, like a "good" hell (if that’s possible!) I would say. First that Fox Award thing - which I didn't win by the way - but as you can see below I still got a trophy for being a finalist on the "20th Century Fox Award 2009" - don't ask me why I look like a weirdo with super sharp plastic thing in his hand! Believe it or not: The peak of that award is sharp as hell! Had to "watch" out not to stumble and stick in into my eyeball! And second: After nearly 7 hours by train to get Ludwigsburg and another 7 hours to get back home to Hamburg (on the same day - just slept 2 hours) I had to rush to the location of my new short flick "Little Secrets". So I arrived there, started shooting and finished the whole thing 2 days later - and finally got the time to get a few more hours of sleep. Tomorrow I will check the rough material and prepare it for editing. And while having such busy days I also managed to read the WATCHMEN graphic novel - finally! I wanted to make sure to do that before watching the movie. And of course, like everybody else said before: That graphic novel is one of the best ever published! For the people who are interested in reading very good graphic novels / comic books - here is my all time favourite list (well, for now): The Watchmen (by Alan Moore) The Dark Knight Returns (by Frank Miller) Batman - Year 100 (by Paul Pope) Batman - Year One (by Frank Miller) Joker (by Brian Azzarello) Death Of Superman (by Dan Jurgens and more) The Boys (by Garth Ennis) The Punisher - Welcome Back, Frank! (by Garth Ennis) Powers (by Brian Michael Bendis) Madman (by Michael Allred) Preacher (by Garth Ennis) The Killing Joke (by Alan Moore) Directing a comic book movie is one of my greatest wishes. It’s a cool time for comic book readers these days - and there is more to come. Ok, just imagine I COULD do one of those flicks - what would it be? I would give my left... nahhh... Here is my "wish" list: 1. The Flash 2. Powers 3. Madman 4. Captain America 5. GEN 13 6. Hero By Night 7. Sunglasses After Dark 8. X 9. Grendel 10. Blindside Well... that's my tiny tiny list :) So if anybody from the comic industry reads this: Just let me know where to sign the papers! 19th February 2009 On my way to the german film school in Ludwigsburg. Today there will be the decision who recieves the "20th Century Fox Award" and who don't! If I'm lucky I'll come back tonite with an brilliant award and the opportunity to get my next flick financed. I already have something in mind there. An excellent story about... Nah!!! You need to wait 'till I'm back - at least! 5th February 2009 Yesterday I received a note from 20th Century Fox – they informed me that I’m nominated for the “20th Century Fox Award“! My short flick “25 Cent” made it into the finals with 5 other films. The winner will be decided on the 19th of February. Wish me luck! 1st February 2009 There is exciting news to share: We found a distributor for our feature film “SHUT”. “Cult-Movie Entertainment“ will release the film in Germany, Austria & Switzerland. By the way: “SHUT” will be released on the 9th of April on DVD in the German speaking region. More info can be found here: www.shut-movie.com We were able to organize several theatrical releases as well (well, more like some “exclusive premiers”). SHUT will be screened on the 11th of March in Kiel at the “Neues Studio” cinema and on the 13th of March in Hamburg – Neu Wulsmtorf at the “Neues Capitol” cinema. People from the cast and crew will be there and happy to answer your questions – well, if you’ve got some. If you have any further questions about the cinema premieres, please feel free to contact me. In other great news: “SHUT” will be represented on the European Film Market at the Berlinale from the 5th until 15th of February from our German distributor “Cult-Movie Entertainment”. Hopefully we’re able to sell some distribution rights overseas. 26th January 2009 Time for a new flick! I co-wrote the psychological thriller short “Little Secrets” with British screenwriter Tommy Draper. I’ll direct the film as well. Shooting starts at the end of February. It’s a nice reunion with some cast and crew members from “SHUT”. Film score will be in the hands of composer Jan Dugge. CAST: Paul Glaser and Fiana de Guzman DOP will be Oliver Menebröcker. After a couple of years we are finally able to work together again. The last film we did was “A Writer’s Tale” – long, long time ago. So again – stay tuned and wait for “Little Secrets” updates. 4th December 2008 "25 CENT" made it into the final round of the Evolution 2 Contest! Check it out HERE and vote for us! 24th October 2008 "25 CENT" made 2nd place at the october "Kampf der Künste" shortfilm slam in the Zeise Kinos Hamburg.