fiction.wikisort.org - Director

Roger Steinmann ([ʁɔ.ʒe ʃtaɪ̯nman]; born November 6, 1961, in Zurich, Switzerland[1]) is a creative in film and theater and an entrepreneur.

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Roger Steinmann
Roger Steinmann, at the Cannes Festival 2015
Born	(1961-11-06) November 6, 1961 (age 60) Zürich, Canton of Zürich, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Occupation	Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter, Entrepreneur
Years active	1969-present
Notable work	Illusion Infinity Die Flutkatastrophe (The Flood Disaster), Die Maschinentiere (The Machine Animals), Die Türe (The Door)
Website	Roger-Steinmann.com

Most notable is his biopic Illusion Infinity (aka Paradise, 2004), starring Dee Wallace, Mickey Rooney,[2] Timothy Bottoms, Barbara Carrera, Martin Kove, Theresa Saldana,[3] and Lilyan Chauvin.

In 2018, Steinmann started to film the farce-comedy PhonY in Switzerland and Thailand.[4][5] The Los Angeles-segment had to be canceled due to lead actor Burt Reynolds' untimely death.[6] In December 2019, Golden Globe winner Elke Sommer agreed to participate.[7]

In spring of 2020, during the worldwide film stop caused by the COVID-19 crisis, Steinmann turned to the theater and created the two-character farce WIN=WIN about the cutting-edge topic of social distancing.[8][9]

Early life

At the age of 12, Steinman shot his first short film with a Super-8 camera. In the next five years, another 30 films followed. Four of them received awards.[10]

One of the early award-winning films was Die Maschinentiere (The Machine Animals), a 1977 documentary on large-scale animal husbandry in contrary to classic farming.[11]

In Die Flutkatastrophe (The Flood Disaster) Steinmann showed the consequences of a broken dam of a nearby reservoir and the flooding of his home town Zurich. Together with an interview, it was aired on Swiss TV in November 1978, the month Steinmann turned 17.[10][12][13]

Career

Progressing film ambitions

Still in his teens, Steinmann aimed to execute larger scale feature-projects based on his original screenplays. In 1978/79, he developed the conception Krebs! (Cancer!) about the life-threatening virus in a woman's organism, visualized by a simultaneous life-threat of the organism of an entire city by a Godzilla-like monster-crab. In German language the title "Krebs!" bears the double meaning of Cancer and Crab.[10]

Theater activities

Steinmann turned to theater as well; notable are:

• 1982: Beschti Referenze (aka Buchhalter Noetzli / Bookkeeper Noetzli), Steinmann in his function as producer and director was the first to bring this play by Hans Schubert to the Swiss stage. Four years later, the same play served the popular Swiss folk actor Walter Roderer as was his probably greatest success, on stage as well as in film.[14][15]
• 1986: Achtung-Fertig-Los! (aka Nume Theater mit em Sunntigsbsuech / Ready-Steady-Go!), Steinmann producing and writing this unique farce-comedy concepting disguised actors among the real audience. His friend Markus Imthurn was directing, becoming Steinmann's closest artistic collaborator to date.[16][17]
• 1988: Schelmereie (Sweet Cheating) at the theater in Oberentfelden, Switzerland: Steinmann directing.[18]

Hollywood

From 1991, Steinmann lived alternatively in Los Angeles. There, he wrote several screenplays on spec, alone but mostly in association, e.g. 'Bum and the Kid' with Scott Steindorff,[19][20] outlines, e.g. ‘Love of my Life’ with Don Mankiewicz, rewrites, e.g. ‘Project: Metalbeast’.[21][22]

Illusion Infinity (aka Paradise, 2004)

Among Steinmann´s several projects, Illusion Infinity (aka Paradise, 2004) caught the eye of casting director Gerald I. Wolff. He was able to engage seven well known Hollywood actors: Dee Wallace, Mickey Rooney,[2] Timothy Bottoms, Barbara Carrera, Martin Kove, Theresa Saldana,[3] and Lilyan Chauvin.

Illusion Infinity was labeled as biopic; however, it was an original screenplay by Steinmann about the supposed real Las Vegas singer Patricia Paradise (played by Dee Wallace) and her life-long search for a genuine soul-mate, and a home she calls ‘Shangri-La’.[2][23][24]

Projects ‘The PartyKillers’ and ‘Ladies First’

In 2014, Thai film star Mike Angelo became interested to star in ‘The PartyKillers’,[25] a screwball-comedy about a humble inventor of a magical teddy-bear crashing the engagement party of a toy manufacturer. This screenplay Steinmann wrote back in 1995/98 in collaboration with Rodney Heeringa.[26]

But another concept of a screwball comedy fit Angelo's talent even better: A male singer gaining success only when performing as a woman, attracting both a father and his daughter. After Angelo agreed to star in this dual role, Steinmann originated the 2015-screenplay ‘Ladies First’. Swiss actors Beat Schlatter and Pascal Ulli confirmed their interest to participate, the latter also as co-produce.[27][28][29][30]

PhonY (in production)

Our world caught up with constant (ab-)use of cell-phones: What would happen if all cells and computers became unusable? This topic led to the 2016/2018-screenplay 'PhonY' with the unique interactivity between segments in Los Angeles, Switzerland, Australia, Thailand and Canada.[31][32][33]

In spring 2018, the filming commenced in Switzerland with Pascal Ulli and Gilles Tschudi; it was followed by the Thai segment. The remaining segments with Burt Reynolds and Barbara Carrera were scheduled in Los Angeles for October 2018.[6][34] Though, a mere month before, Burt Reynolds untimely passed away, and the production stalled temporarily.[6][33] It is scheduled for a 2020 delivery. As the fatal COVID-19 situation affects the worldwide filmmaking, PhonY's finishing is postponed.

Renewed theater activities

Due to the cinematic inactivity in spring 2020, Steinmann turned once again to the theater. Between April and September 2020, he created WIN=WIN, a two-person-farce about social distancing.  He adapted the original of German as well to English.  Since November 2020, the world-premiere is in preparation, with Steinmann as producer and director.[8] Renowned actors are interested in the lead-roles, among others, Timothy Bottoms and Karl Dall.[9]

In response to demand in the amateur theater sector, Steinmann modernized  his 1986-farce Achtung-Fertig-Los! as Nume Theater with em Sunntigsbsuech (to date only in German) in the fall of 2020. It's a complete adaption with an entirely new second act.

Other activities

1983: Steinmann invented an automatic bottle stopper; patented in 1985.[35][36]

1983: Steinmann prevailed in the German TV-quiz show ‘Alles oder Nichts’ and won DM 10'000.[37][38][39]^{[failed verification]}

1984: Steinmann founded the Rotsch AG,[40] a joint-stock company, to market his invention. At that time, he was 22 years old and became the youngest president ever of such an entity in Switzerland. He sold that entity in 1996.

1995: Steinmann founded the film production company SUNSET International AG, a joint-stock company, what produces the current PhonY.[41]

Filmography (selection)

Film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes	Ref.
1969	Zürich	Yes	Yes	Yes	First film; Short Documentary
1976	Die Türe	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short film; won TV-Competition, aired on Swiss TV	[42]
1976	Die Zwei vom Klub	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short film; won Award	[43]
1976	Die Welt steht Kopf	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short film; Experimental	[44]
1977	Die Maschinentiere	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short Documentary; won Top-Award by Swiss Animal-Protection-Association	[45]
	Die Flutkatastrophe	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short film; won Award, aired in Swiss TV	[12][13][45][46][47]
1978	Ein Tag in der Tierarztpraxis	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short film; won Top-Award by Swiss Animal-Protection-Association
1985	Kamera: Albert G.	No	Yes	No	Short film; Line Producer
1987	Achtung-Fertig-Los!	No	Yes	Yes	Video	[17][16]
1990	Rotsch	Yes	Yes	Yes	Commercial; Ursula Schaeppi in Dual-Role
1995	Project: Metalbeast	No	Yes	No	Additional rewritte by Steinmann	[21][22]
2004	Illusion Infinity (aka Paradise)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Starring Dee Wallace, Mickey Rooney, Timothy Bottoms, Barbara Carrera, Martin Kove, and Theresa Saldana.	[2][23][24]
2016/20	PhonY	Yes	Yes	Yes	filming	[48][31][32][6]

Theater (selection)

• Beschti Referenze (aka ‘Buchhalter Noetzli’, 1982), directed and produced[14][15]
• Achtung-Fertig-Los! (aka 'Nume Theater mit em Sunntigsbsuech', 1985), written and produced[17][16]
• Schelmereie (1988), directed[18]
• Nume Theater with em Sunntigsbsuech (aka 'Nur Theater mit dem Sonntagsbesuch', 2020) new adaptation of the 1986-play
• WIN=WIN (2020), written in German and adapted in English; production as co/producer and director in preparation[8]

Unproduced screenplays (selection)

• Krebs! (1978)[10]
• Serendipity (1991), co-written with/by James Valentine
• Bum and the Kid (1992), co-written with/by Robert Scott Steindorff, story by Steindorff[19]
• Love of my Life (1993), co-written with/by Don Mankiewicz, story by Steinmann/Mario Gmür[49]
• The PartyKillers (1995/2014), story with/by Rodney Heeringa, Markus Imthurn and Sidonia Held (in development)[25][26]
• Ladies First (2015) (in development)[27][28][29][30]

References

External links

• Official website
• Roger Steinmann at IMDb
• Illusion Infinity aka Paradise at IMDb
• PhonY official website

На других языках

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[de] Roger Steinmann

Roger Steinmann (* 6. November 1961 in Zürich) ist ein Schweizer Film- und Theater-Produzent, Film- und Theater-Regisseur, Drehbuch- und Theater-Autor, sowie Unternehmer.[1]

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- [en] Roger Steinmann

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