IRON SKY THE COMING RACE FINISHES CROWDFUNDING, MOVES INTO PRE-PRODUCTION
One of the most ambitious film productions of the coming years, the Finnish-German science fiction comedy Iron Sky The Coming Race, finished successfully the second crowdfunding round on January 5th, raising over $560,000 using the crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo, and moves into pre-production.
Together the two crowdfunding rounds have brought in over $750,000 dollars. Both campaigns exceeded the target by over 10%. 75% of the contributors pre-ordered the film via the campaign, almost 2 years before its’ release.
The budget of Iron Sky The Coming Race is whopping $15 million, out of which the filmmakers have so far raised 50%, including crowdfunding and soft money from Europe. For the remaining 50 % the filmmakers are in discussions with several sponsors, financiers, investors, distributors and further crowdfunding / bridge loan, and will close everything by June 2015.
Tero Kaukomaa, producer of Iron Sky The Coming Race, who has previously produced or co-produced over 15 feature films, including Lars von Trier’s “Dancer in the Dark”, the first “Iron Sky” by Timo Vuorensola and AJ Annila’s “Jade Warrior” and “Sauna”, has a lot of faith in working with crowdfunding now and in the future:
“Everything we do with Iron Sky supports our mission to maximize our fans’ involvement with the development, production and release of Iron Sky. For many years the fans have been contributing their ideas, their designs, their talent, their help, their contacts, and their promotional power – but also their funding, as the latest IndieGoGo campaign shows. As an exchange we aim to provide them a kick-ass entertainment, first by doing the film with them, and finally by getting the film to them. We also would love to give the audience a fair say on how to consume audio-visual content. Just like nobody who’s making a living out of this industry, we don’t love piracy, but too often we see that as the only way to get the content you want – and that is the biggest issue of the industry nowadays. Fighting piracy is a losing battle – the way we see it: we’re not here to fight, but to compete with piracy. If we succeed in getting the film available globally day and date, we have a much better chance in that competition. As a non Hollywood studio, the only way to do that is active crowd collaboration.”
The filmmakers are currently finalizing the casting of the main roles. So far onboard are Julia Dietze, Stephanie Paul and Udo Kier from the first film, and Tom Green as a new addition to the cast. Script is written by American writer Dalan Musson, visual effects are to be made by German company Pixomondo (“Hugo”, “Game of Thrones”) and Slovenian band Laibach will do the music. The film will be shot on the second half of 2015 and released on the second half of 2016.
The filmmakers have disassembled the successful crowdfunding round in detail, in a blog post released today: http://www.ironsky.net/blog/the-story-of-a-crowdfunding-campaign/
Iron Sky The Coming Race’s trailer videos have been watched over 10 million times on the Internet since their releases in November and December. In the trailer, we meet Adolf Hitler riding a T-Rex in the Hollow Earth. Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jLaf5qj8cs
About IRON SKY
IRON SKY UNIVERSE is a new production company focusing solely on expanding the Iron Sky
franchise and developing online platforms for audience engagement. It’s producing now sequel to Iron
Sky titled Iron Sky The Coming Race, and is currently working also with a multi-season TV series Iron
Sky – Houston, we have a problem! The company is owned by Tero Kaukomaa and Timo
Vuorensola from Finland, plus over 500 shareholders from over 30 countries, who brought in over
330.000 $ in exchange for about 10 % of the company during the 1st funding round for the company
May 2014.
IRON SKY THE COMING RACE is a sequel to Iron Sky, bringing the Center of the Earth as a new stage to the story. The film is in pre-production and will be shot with estimated 15 million $ budget in 2015, to be released in 2016. The Film is currently set as a Finnish – German co-production and will be produced by Tero Kaukomaa as the delegate producer (Iron Sky Universe) from Finland and Oliver Damian (27 Film Productions) from Germany. So far announced cast are Julia Dietze, Stephanie Paul and Udo Kier, all returning from first Iron Sky and new additions to the cast are Tom Green and Finnish actor Kari Ketonen.
IRON SKY (the 1st film) is a dark science fiction comedy that takes place in the year 2018, when the Nazis, who fled the Earth to the dark side of the Moon in 1945, return to claim the Earth. The film is Finnish-German-Australian co- production with a budget of 8 million euros ($11 million). It’s directed by Timo Vuorensola and produced by Tero Kaukomaa (Blind Spot Pictures), Samuli Torssonen (visual effects producer, Energia Productions), Oliver Damian (27 Films Production), Cathy Rodda and Mark Overett (New Holland Pictures), and San Fu Maltha as the executive producer. The cast includes Julia Dietze (11⁄2 Knights, Bullet, Killing Frank), Götz Otto (Schindler’s List, The Downfall), Christopher Kirby (The Matrix Reloaded & Revolutions, Daybreakers, Space: Above and Beyond), Udo Kier (Ace Ventura, Independence Day, Dancer in the Dark), Peta Sergeant (Satisfaction), Stephanie Paul (Separation City, Film School Confidential) and Tilo Prückner (The Neverending Story,The Counterfeiters), and the screenplay is written by Michael Kalesniko (Private Parts) and Timo Vuorensola, based on a story by acclaimed sci-fi writer Johanna Sinisalo (Nebula Award nominee 2009, Finlandia 2000) and on an original idea from Jarmo Puskala (Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning). The film was completed in February 2012 and released at Berlinale 2012 in Panorama program. The film has been distributed theatrically to over 60 countries, and even more on BluRay and DVD. Film won the Silver Méliès -award and Audience Award at Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, the AACTA (“Australian Oscar”) for best visual effects, Jussi-award (“Finnish Oscar”) for best production design, and several audience awards in festivals around the world. It was in official selection in such film festivals as Berlinale, Moscow Film Festival, Karlovy Vary, Sofia International Film Festival and Sitges Film Festival. World sales is handled by Stealth Media Group.
