INTRODUCTION
FACTS of 'PhonY'
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Farce-comedy with screwball-affinity;
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Top current theme of global digitalization;
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Mainly English spoken - with some Thai and Swiss;
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Plot set most diversly from tropical beaches to snow mountains, from slums to shiny Hollywood - at four continents;
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Enhance by footage from 32 world locations;
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Target audience: critical contemporaries; 5G opponents; women above 35 caring about the future of their children.
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Written, directed and produced by Roger Steinmann. During his ten-year Hollywood-stay, he was responsible, in the same duties, for Illusion Infinity (with two-time Oscar winner Mickey Rooney, E.T.’s-lead Dee Wallace, Timothy Bottoms ("The Last Picture Show"), Martin Kove (“Rambo”), Theresa Saldana ("Raging Bull"), and "Bond-girl’"Barbara Carrera). Steinmann’s cinematographic quality-approach is in the quality-level of his mentor Billy Wilder as well as his contemporary idols Quentin Tarantino and Alfonso Cuaron.
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Due to the unusual sory-structure, PhonY is filmed in segments. Shooting started in Switzerland and Thailand in spring 2018. The remaining two segments were scheduled for October 2018 in Los Angeles with Burt Reynolds, Talia Shire and Barbara Carrera. Though with Reynolds'' untimely death s passed away a mere five weeks before filming, the production got interrupted.
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As his role along others is newly casted, there will be eventually two to four well-recognized actors be heading PhonY.
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With Golden Globe-winner Elke Sommer on board, the shooting of a further segment is scheduled for spring 2020. This leaves only the 'Burt Reynolds-segment' left to film for completion of PhonY.
PhonY, THE FARCE- COMEDY
The viewer identifies oneself with the characters and lives through the natural aspects of the story.
The funny, positive, uplifting handling of the plot is the core definition of this genre. In stark contrast to techno-laden action-flicks, where a story with endearing humans comes second since it appeals foremost to basic thrills of the moment. In our world of existential fear, terror and war, audiences certainly yearn for a feel-good movie.
But - where are quality comedies in recent times? The ones…
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with attractive themes – fresh and accurate;
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with ingenious screenplays - as writing is less expensive in creating than sfx- and techno-effects, made by a specialized, large crew;
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with attractive stars - as when they are allowed to genuinely act, they are reachable - in contrast to ‘Marvel-flicks’ where they play largely against a green blanket;
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made by small but efficient crews – motivated as able to contribute to the film;
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easy finding film-distributors - happy to laugh during their work of selecting and buying;
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premiere at film-festivals - interested as being able to show for once a comedy between the usual action, horror, and Marvel.
On the big screen, a Woody Allen-film is nowadays the rare exception of a comedy. Attractive by storytelling and name-actors, the Allen-films, always at a modest budget, recoup their investment much easier than a 200-Mio Marvel flick where the producers hardly see black ink before reaching a one Billion Dollars of receipts; this due to the wild costs of worldwide marketing, see unpredictable territories such as China.
Investing in a high-budget, Mio 20+ films, is hardly possible as these fares are all Wallstreet - and studio-bound. And if, amounts of less than one million are unthinkable.
Thus 'PhonY' offers the opportunity to divers one assets at a modest level.
PROFIT - EXAMPLES OF FILMS
Box-office numbers of recent films, thus comedies, are not easy to get – simply since most of them are no longer at the box-office (=cinemas); they are picked-up by internet-streamers such as Netflix and Amazon for unknown, but mostly high numbers. Meaning that small, but well-produced films with an edge got a good chance to make profit since today not only conventional theatrical distributors or TVprogrammers do compete, but as well the entire internet-media. Those bids are at one same level and disregard budgets; what counts is quality.
Thus "PhonY", due to its edge, production design and star power, looks like a multiple of its budget –
a comfortable advantage of low cost and high quality.
We allow to present some proofed numbers of successes of the wide field of comedies:
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Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Budget $30’000’000, Gross World $238’000’000
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Call Me By Your Name (2017), Budget $4’800’000 / Gross World $40’300’000
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Moonlight (2016), Budget $1’500’000, Gross World $65’000’000
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We’re The Millers (2013), Budget $37’000’000, Gross World $270’000’000
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Midnight in Paris (2011), Budget $17’000’000, Gross World $151’000’000
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The Kids are all Right (2010), Budget $3’500’000 / Gross world $34’705’000
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My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), Budget $5'000'000 / Gross World $368'744'000
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Napoleon Dynamite (2004), $400’000 / Gross World $46’100’000
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Home Alone (1990), Budget $18'000'000 / Gross World $534’000'000
And some examples from the action/horror genres:
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Pulp Fiction (1994), Budget $8’000’000 / Gross world $214’705’000
A footnote: All above numbers originate from theatrical distribution only – ancillary markets such as TV, Internet Streamers, DVD are not included. Normally, these account for the double triple of the theatrical receipts.
The outlook of the finished film will be either an exclusive, outright sell to one of the lately aggressively bidding streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon, or then may go the classic way through theatrical-cinema next to ancillary markets such as DVD, TV, and others; this way is more marketing intensive though, as widespread, a more profit-oriented way.
For all German-speaking territories (Germany, Switzerland and Austria), the reliable Swiss distributor Stammfilm AG is already in line.
At June 21, 2019, streaming-platform Netflix just acquired the similar low-budgeted Swiss Film "Wolkenbruch"; link to the Swiss newspaper.
PhonY’s cosmopolite story with protagonists from all over the Globe and with its witty handling of everybody’s beloved toy, this film travels easy across cultures. Set within attractive locations, sympathetic characters and entertaining twists, some dramatic aspects of today’s digitalized society surface inevitably. Though, as PhonY is a farce-comedy, bright light prevails over the digitized darkness.
Ask for full documentation, such as the shooting screenplay, the budget, the production - and financing plan, the raw-edit from the 60%-shoot, and more.
