On Set with 'Move On' the Web Series

Easter Day, 2012, I got a phonecall; “Can you be in Copenhagen in 1 hour? Some people want to meet you - and if you can come up with an idea for a film-like web-series to shoot in 8 countries, on the way - that would be great.

An hour later I met the very courageous creatives from DDB Tribal, pitched them the fresh idea, and off we went on an 8000 kilometre long writing-while-scouting trip.. I told them I wanted to do it because I was momentarily sick of Hollywood, and wanted to go on a roadtrip with an ultra small crew - like a film family and just like Truffaut had done it. Cut to three months later; on the road with a 100-people crew. 🙄 My own bus, 20 seater airplane, and a lot of attitude. Lots of it. Too much of it, to be honest. From modest to crazy in 2.4 seconds flat.

But boy was that fun.

Man on a Ledge. 2012.

On April 1st 2010, I was in Mexico prepping my CARTEL, when I got a phonecall that the movie was folding and we had to pack it up and leave. I thought it was an Aprils Fool joke of course, but it wasn’t! Turned out the US State Department had called my producer, Brian Grazer, and told him we had to shut it down for security reasons. This was the second shut down on Cartel.. The first time around, we had to shut it down because of a melange of Sean Penn’s lovelife - and my own big mouth. Long story.

Well, anyway, the second time almost killed me.

I decided to take it standing up, not throw in the towel, and take the first available and doable movie, and so three months later I was in New York, prepping Man On A Ledge. What a mad ride that was.

I ended up having probably the worst - and best - time of my life at the same time. The worst, because the movie was becoming something that was not me, and I could do nothing about it. The best because I was finally shooting something. The fifth movie since moving to LA, the one I had worked the least on, was getting committed to film. So weird.

Life is what you make it.

The critics killed it. The audience loves it - and it is still on the All-Time Bestseller list on US iTunes.

Severance, Berlin 2016

I worked on the movie SEVERANCE for the better part of a year (or was it two) until a fall day 2016, when the movie collapsed before shooting because of a tax-structure reform in the UK that had a direct impact on my producers and financiers.

A good lesson to everybody, that the movie business is a miracle of possibles, where finance, timing, and luck has to dance in absolute synchronicity, before you even get to the craft and the storytelling itself.

The movie might get back into life one day - I sure hope so, as I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it - bit probably it will be set in another country and will have to go through a rewrite for that, and everything will start again from scratch.-. The long run up towards production was also my longest non-credited writing process ever, which as an added bonus gave me a serious appetite for writing.

The lead character was for a long time supposed to be played by Michael Keaton whom I love. I travelled to LA to talk him into it and he accepted. What a great guy, really. Just all around good and intelligent company. Unfortunately for me, and great for him, about a month after he said he would join our show, he was nominated to an Academy Award for Birdman. His first major showing after years away. Anyway, this left open some massive opportunities for him, and so, off he went.

I won’t tell you who the next guy to take the part was, but it was a true honor to work with him for a beat until the sad end to our time in Berlin.

Maybe later.

The life of the crew.

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