Still alive and kicking, despite the odds!

Here’s a quick update on what’s been up with me lately, as I haven’t had proper time to write out here in a bit!

Last year I released my fourth feature film, Jeepers Creepers: Reborn, which was released worldwide, theatrically in many countries including US and UK, on Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming elsewhere. While the film was controversial, to say the least among the fans and the critics, which was a given knowing the film’s background and the fact that I was the first director to poke the franchise in any way, it was a very successful release nevertheless, numbers-wise. Given that Jeepers was a hired-gun -job, I feel I did my job OK, and I’m still very proud of the movie for the parts where I had a chance to do things the way I believed in, but in the end, it was the producers Jake Seal‘s and Terry Bird‘s movie, and they called the final shots, and I trust they got the film they wanted!

Following the same trajectory, I was also invited to another Jake Seal-produced film 97 Minutes, with producers Jamie Thompson and a spinal-surgeon-gone-writer/actor Pavan Grover. While the script needed a lot of work to be filmable, I was enamored by the cast I got a chance to work with – Alec Baldwin, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and MyAnna Buring. When the cards were laid in front of me, the reality stroke hard: despite having a A-list cast, our budget allowed only 1 week of prep and 18 shooting days. What a riot!

I did my best with the film within those 18 days, and thanks to a great cinematographer Konstantin Freyer, we managed to get everything in the bag in those 18 days, no overtime. Compromises had to be made, surely, but the damn thing was in the can in a little over two weeks. For that, I give the team a huge pat in the back, really tight work! The film was released in June 2023 in US followed by European / streamer release.

And what’s next? Nope, won’t do another Iron Sky, unfortunately that IP has passed on to somebody else and I’m no longer involved in that. Sad face. And nope, won’t do another Jeepers Creepers, got traumatized by the response on that one. Another sad face.

But enough pouting, there’s a lot of cool stuff in the horizon!

Right now, I have a two new films lined up: a sci-fi film Project Darwin I’m to direct later this year, followed by a film about a town of serial killers and murderers, Killtown. In addition to this, I’m also developing two TV series, Iron Sky -follow up Red Planet, and Nordic crime series Undertaker. I also activated in advertisements, and nowadays have a representation with Cocoa Mediaproductions to direct shorter format ads with cinematic edge – like the one I did for Burger King just recently!

Ah well, that’s me, right now! I’ll keep on writing here a bit more often from now on, as I feel like i’ve neglected this a bit.