It’s that time of the year again. Summer – which has been long, warm, and exceptionally beautiful here in Finland – fades to autumn and the most beautiful time of the year begins. The year has been quite uneventful for me, at least when it comes to work. I finished shooting Altered, my upcoming sci-fi film at the end of last year, and this year has been mostly just putting it together. Post-production has taken me to Kazakhstan and Turkey, but for the most part of the summer, I’ve stayed in Finland. There’s of course been odd film festivals here and there – Berlin and Cannes, mainly – and I’ve followed Lea who has been working on a good selection of interesting, big international projects herself. That led me to stay in Nice for about a month in the spring, which I enjoyed very much, a little kickstart to the summer starting mid-April already.
It has been quite a strange year in many respects. I haven’t had too much to do, so I’ve taken up a slow-paced method of trying to get into running. I’ve always had pretty bad knees, but I’ve been running a lot through my life, sometimes more actively, sometimes not. Until this spring, there has been quite a long break from running for me, so I decided it’s time for me to get a hold of myself and give myself a goal of some sort. First, I did the couch-to-5k program, and now I’m on the 5k to 10k program, although, a bit more sluggish with that. It all started in Nice where I had loads of free time while Lea was shooting, so I started to run along the promenade. First, it was hell, but as it always is, once you push through the pain and discomfort, soon you find yourself running for fun.
After my weeks in Nice, I visited quickly home, then went back to France, to Cannes for the festival. Loads of meetings as always, one particular was an encounter with a producer and a distributor of a friend of mine’s film, who was looking for a sci-fi director for a script written by a very prolific US writer. I couldn’t help but mention my background with Star Wreck and Iron Sky films, and we agreed to chat more. Now, the production is slowly being shaped up, looking to get the script ready by the end of the year, and then see for the wheels of production to start slowly turning.
But you can never really trust how these things turn out in the end. For one successfully finished movie, there are at least five projects that stumble and fall and never get made. When we started to do Iron Sky, the idea that a film might not get funded and thus, never made, never really even crossed our minds. I’m sure Tero and the other producers were much more skeptical about our chances, but we didn’t know it. Only after the first Iron Sky, when I started to receive scripts from my agents and managers and producers all over the world, I learned that wanting to make a movie doesn’t equal it getting made. I still feel bad for those who never got made – Jeremiah Harm was a great graphic novel we worked hard to get funded, but it never came to be. I Killed Adolf Hitler, the same story – actually, we tried to restart the production years later, but nothing came of it. Really a shame, as I loved the script. Gone To See The Riverman was a script I loved, but we just couldn’t get the cast together. Right now, Killtown is a project i really love, but it has slowed down, as casting seems challenging. And not to mention The Ark, which we even finished filming, but the production never got finished as the Chinese production company funding it collapsed. And there are so many that died even before getting the script made. So I retain a healthy skepticism until all stars are aligned.
The question really is, how much you can and should push something. How many eggs to put into which basket, because you can’t really affect always if the film gets made, or not. Right now, I have a few productions I’m putting a lot of work on. Second Peak is a nature catastrophe movie I’m directing, the abovementioned sci-fi actioner which still remains unnamed, and I’m working as a producer to produce my first film, which I won’t direct, called The Scout. And of course, there’s Altered that’s in post production.
This summer I’ve been trying to better myself, as I told you – be a bit tighter with money, learn to drive (get my license, that is), and get in a slightly better shape. None of these objectives have really yet produced noticeable results, but I trust there’s something once you set your mind on something that changes your whole attitude towards it, and if given enough time and passion, those goals can be reached.
I also made the decision not to spend winters in Finland anymore, if avoidable. Quite frankly, I feel now I have a chance to really go chase the sun, and work where it’s comfortable instead of dark, windy, and wet winter in Helsinki. I love autumn but come November 1st, this boy’s out of here, returning not before mid-May, ideally! Again, that’s the plan, let’s see how it shapes out – but there’s nothing really keeping me here. My partner and I are very mobile people, she works in films that take her here and there, as do I. I’ve never felt the need or want to own an apartment, I’ve had my base in Lauttasaari for years now, and since I don’t have active family obligations – my son is already 19, and can travel – I’m pretty free to go.
Once I realized that, I found some peace. Freedom does that. Living in Finland, and being able to travel nearly everywhere in the world, it truly is a wonderful gift I’m well aware not everyone in the world shares.
Now, I’m headed to London. Lea’s new project shoots all over the Great Britain, and I’m planning to take my laptop and follow her for a bit. All my work I can do from wherever, as long as I have internet and access to an airport close by.
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