SMALL PRINT:IMAGINE THE film studio pitch: "It's Spaceballsmeets The Producers," says the sweaty auteur to the stoney-faced producer. "In 1945 the Nazis flee to space, colonise the dark side of the moon and, in 2018, launch a revenge attack on earth."
At this point, any sane film producer would probably throw the sweaty auteur out before they finished that sentence. Thankfully the Finnish makers of what they have dubbed a “science fiction black comedy” decided to be their own bosses and bypass the studios.
The result is Iron Sky,a Finnish-German-Australian production set for release in 2012 with a €6.8 million budget, from both traditional sources and around €1 million from "crowd-sourcing" and online fund-raising.
For as little €1, donors can get a sneak peak of the film on its website, in an experiment that follows the pioneering approach of 2009's The Age of Stupid.
Unlike many films, it's clear, even from the online teaser, where the money has been spent: on spectacular special effects that can compete with Hollywood's best. The idea for the film – the Finns cite Dr Strangeloveand Independence Dayas inspiration – came to the team during the filming of their last film, Star Trekparody Star Wreck.
“We were sitting in the sauna discussing the shooting when (our friend) Jarmo came up with the strange idea about Nazis and the moon,” said director Timo Vuorensola. “It felt a little too much at that point but, five years later, here we are and it has actually happened.”
The film begins with a stylish prologue sequence: an American crew of the spaceship Liberty land on the surface of the moon, led by one of the film’s heroes, Washington.
On a moon walkabout he stumbles across a crater containing a gas tank on which the words "Helium 3" are printed in sinister Gothic script. Soon the astronauts have their first encounter with the villains: gasmasked Nazis wearing trademark SS helmets. There are bazookas, motorbikes and then, the shocking revelation: for six decades the lunar Nazis have worked quietly on the dark side of the moon to build their new Death Star-like base, the Schwarze Sonne (black sun) fortress in the shape of a massive swastika. "When things are meant to be really evil in science fiction films, then characters who look and speak like Nazis crop up," said Mr Vuorensola on German television. "The best example for this is Star Wars.We wanted to really push it . . . and see what happens."
What happens after the prologue is a closely guarded secret but the enthusiastic director seems anxious not to disappoint. Online donors will be the first to be let in, after helping create the film and keep costs down.
Members of the online community created some on-screen graphics and even translated, into German, the film's fascist anthem The Moon Nazi.
Once again, the online supporters stepped in, “when we shot a scene in front of a movie theatre and needed fictional posters for props,” said the director. Filming has just wrapped but new donors are still welcome. Space Nazis are an expensive habit.
ironsky.net
