cover 4_05-gfq.RV - German Films

“I knew from my contact network,” says Jarzyk, who founded the
agency Players together with his wife Mechthild Jarzyk-Holter, “that
Ralf was already working on a related subject. I called his agency, sent
him the script and he agreed in 24 hours! Then we worked together
on the script for three months. We orientated ourselves on the
British producers Working Title to make sure we had the light touch.”
Films such as the crime comedy Die Musterknaben and the comedy
Mondscheintarif (also co-produced and distributed by Senator), amply
demonstrate that Huettner has “the light touch”.
Jarzyk, who came into film via theater promotion and actor management
via the art trade, left Players to pursue his production ideas. “It’s
untypically German,” he says, “but I didn’t want to do the same thing
my whole life!”
Jarzyk is also keen to point out that his production company,
Independent Players, is what it says on the box, independent.
“So the film is even more market compatible and there’s no conflict
of interest! But seriously, we cast the film on its and the actors’
merits. Independent Players is a separate entity. It’s not a pre-packaged
deal like in the U.S.”
And coming next from Independent Players is Der Absacker. “Also a
comedy,” says Jarzyk, “about a man who very quickly loses everything
and only then gets to know what life really is and has to offer.”
Sieben Zwerge – Der
Wald ist nicht genug
SK
On the set with the Seven Dwarves
(photo courtesy of Zipfelmuetzenfilm)
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Family, Comedy,
Family Entertainment Production Company Zipfelmuetzenfilm/
Hamburg, in cooperation with Film & Entertainment VIP Medienfonds
2/Munich, MMC Independent/Cologne, Rialto Film/Berlin, Universal
Pictures Productions/Hamburg, in association with Telepool/Munich
With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernseh
Fonds Bayern Producers Otto Waalkes, Bernd Eilert, Douglas
Welbat Director Sven Unterwaldt Screenplay Otto Waalkes,
Bernd Eilert, Sven Unterwaldt Director of Photography Peter
von Haller Editor Norbert Herzner Music by Joja Wendt
Production Design Thomas Freudenthal Principal Cast Otto
Waalkes, Mirco Nontschew, Martin Schneider, Ralf Schmitz, Norbert
Heisterkamp, Boris Aljinovic, Gustav Peter Woehler, Nina Hagen,
Cosma Shiva Hagen, Hans Werner Olm, Christian Tramitz, Ruediger
Hoffmann, Heinz Hoenig Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby
Digital Shooting Language German Shooting in Hamburg,
Bremen, Goslar, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Quedlinburg, Wernigerode,
Bad Harzburg, Braunschweig, July-September 2005 German
Distributor Universal Germany & United International Pictures/
Frankfurt
World Sales
TELEPOOL GmbH
Wolfram Skowronnek, Carlos Hertel
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
email: cinepool@telepool.de · www.telepool.de
Proving you can’t keep a good dwarf down, let alone seven of the
little fellows, those feisty fairy-tale critters, the Seven Dwarves are
back! And this time the forest isn’t big enough to hold ’em!
As created by the multitalented writing, directing, producing, singing,
comedy-performing Otto Waalkes, this time the dwarves Cloudy,
Sunny, Bubi, etc. (who seem much taller than real dwarves should but
explain it away as “a common misconception”) set off to help Snow
White – who has since had a baby – guess the name of the evil dwarf
that has threatened to take her child. Will they succeed? Can you say
“Rumpelstiltskin”? ’Course they will! But that’s only after they’ve gone
about things in their own, highly unique way, together with director
Sven Unterwaldt, doing for (or is it to?) the Brothers Grimm
what the Monty Python team did for King Arthur in Monty Python and
the Holy Grail.
“We decided to make the sequel last May,” says producer Douglas
Welbat, “before the first one was even released. We wanted to
take the story further so while the first film was ninety-percent studio
filmed, this time we’ve gone for locations. Otherwise there have been
few changes. The cast regulars are back but we also have many, many
new surprises!”
Not even the promise to write something nice about him could persuade
Welbat to say what those surprises are, but since the first film
reached more than 7 million viewers in the German-speaking territories
he’s certainly not going to let them down. As Welbat says: “We
hit their nerves with the first film and hope it will happen a second
time.”
As already mentioned, this time the production heads outdoors and
Welbat promises “viewers will see a greatly increased production
value. The Seven Dwarves are very valuable and what’s valuable costs
money so we couldn’t afford to be mean. Visually, it will be absolutely
wonderful.”
About the first film, Variety wrote: “When it’s clicking, it’s hilarious ...
Anarchic, satiric and silly enough to ignite a midnight movie-style cult
following, this comedy-as-cudgel from Sven Unterwaldt could, with
appropriate handling, break out of the foreign film/festival forest and
make some real noise at the international box office.”
german films quarterly in production
4 · 2005 34
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