Quarterly 2 · 2008 - German Films

Justus Jonas, Peter Shaw and Bob Andrews to an abandoned house,
Terror Castle, which is apparently haunted by the ghost of a wealthy
industrial tycoon, Stephen Terrill. However, there is much more
awaiting them than they first assume, and, what’s more, an old
acquaintance pops up as well …
“From the outset, we planned to make two or three films based on
the Robert Arthur books,” explains producer Malte Grunert. “It
was important for us to get the second one made pretty quickly
because we and Disney both believe that the gap between the films
shouldn’t be too big if you are wanting to establish a brand in the cinemas.
During production on the first film we had developed the screen -
play for the second one and, after they saw the first edit of Skeleton
Island, Disney gave its OK for the second part.”
While the Cape Town-based Two Oceans Production had been the
production services company on the first film, this second outing for
The Three Investigators was an official bilateral co-production between
Germany and South Africa according to the co-production treaty.
“This meant that we could benefit from the tax rebate of 25% of the
South African costs – with a cap of 10 million Rands – and also re -
ceived support from the Industrial Development Cooperation fund
which even committed to the film before seeing how the first film had
performed in the cinema,” Grunert adds.
The film’s €10 million budget also profited from Studio Hamburg’s
credit line agreed with the Commerzbank, secured by a state-backed
guarantee from Berlin, as well as funding from Filmfoerderung
Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and
the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) incentive scheme.
The second time round, the cast and crew around director Florian
Baxmeyer were using the locations in and around Cape Town to
double for Southern California (the first film had been set in South
Africa). In addition, there were two days of shooting at the beginning
of January on Berlin’s Pariser Platz in front of the Brandenburg Gate
with German actors Axel Milberg and Julia Bremermann as
Justus’ parents.
Post-production over the coming months will be undertaken at VCC
Pictures and Studio Funk in Berlin and Hamburg as well as in Robert
Pinnow’s new Berlin visual effects facility Rise FX.
A professed fan of adventure films such as The Goonies, Back to the
Future or E.T., director Baxmeyer says that “the biggest challenge for
me on this second film was that we have a different genre: there’s a
little horror and a haunted-house story. We had to make sure that the
film would also function for kids 6 years and above. It has to be really
creepy and exciting for 12-year-olds, but not too hard for 6-yearolds,
so that was the big challenge to find the right tone.”
He explains that he is not keen on an over-reliance on visual effects
added later in the computer where actors thus have to spend a lot of
time on set in front of green screens. “I like working with mechanical
effects,” he explains. “You are much freer than with visual effects
which can be terribly restricting as you are constantly having to think
about matte lines and where you are going to put the camera. The
way we have done it, the sets can function 360 degrees and shooting
is much more pleasant.”
The Three Investigators – The Secret of Terror Castle
is set to be released by Walt Disney in Germany in early 2009, and a
third installment (The Silver Spider) may go into production later that
year on location in Eastern Europe.
MB
Unter Strom
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Comedy
Production Company Next Film/Leipzig, in-coproduction with
Cine Plus Filmproduktion/Berlin With backing from Mittel -
deutsche Medienfoerderung, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF)
Producer Clementina Hegewisch Co-Producers Frank Evers,
Zoltan Paul Director Zoltan Paul Screenplay Uli Brée, Zoltan
Paul Director of Photography Christopher Rowe Editor
Sebastian Thuemler Music by Julian Adam Pajzs Production
Design Helen Kraiczy Principal Cast Harald Krassnitzer, Catrin
Striebeck, Hanno Koffler, Robert Stadlober, Anna Fischer, Ralph
Herforth, Tilo Nest, Franz Xaver Zach, Sunnyi Melles Casting Bo
Rosenmueller Special Effects Jens Doeldissen Format HD,
blow-up to 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby SR Shooting Language
German Shooting in Dresden, Weimar, Jena and surroundings,
February – March 2008 German Distributor Salzgeber & Co.
Medien/Berlin
Contact
Next Film Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. KG
Clementina Hegewisch
Almstadtstrasse 5 · 10119 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-61 78 91 60 · fax +49-30-61 78 91 61 9
email: next@nextfilm.de · www.nextfilm.de
Unter Strom (“Live Wire”) is, says co-producer, co-writer and
director Zoltan Paul, a “lightning short circuit of all those recent
films which made going to the cinema a real event, and more. It’s an
extraordinary successful amalgam of Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction,
Reservoir Dogs), Pedro Almodóvar (Women on the Verge of a Nervous
Breakdown), British humor (black and absurd), Swedish humor à la
Kops and Austrian laconicism.“
Frankie (Hanno Koffler) is sentenced to fifteen years for murder:
being innocent, he flips out and takes hostage the newly divorced
Daniel and Anna Trieb. Needing a hideout, they end up at the Trieb’s
summer place. On the way, Frankie kidnaps the economics minister,
Jan van Moellerbreit, whom he holds responsible for his plight.
For reinforcements, Frankie also collects his wife, Gloria and his best
friend Cheesie (Robert Stadlober). He needs them, too, be cause
german films quarterly in production
2 · 2008 37
Scene from “Unter Strom”
(photo © Sandra Steh)