I am film director Timo Vuorensola, made a film about Moon Nazis called IRON SKY, now working on new stuff - Ask Me Anything.

Did you get feedback from real Nazis?

Yeah, I did. I did get death threats from some neo nazis, but the funniest part was when the Sarah Palin aficionados found out about Iron Sky and that it might be having fun in the expense of their deliriously funny not-so-soon-to-be-president, they went ballistic. Not only did I get death threats, but they promised to bomb down whole Finland (if they would ever find it on the map..)

SUOMI MAINITTU! TORILLA TAVATAAN!!!

6-1!

What inspired you to choose Laibach for the Iron Sky's soundtrack? (Great pick, by the way!)

Thanks, was a big dream for me since the first meeting of minds we had back in some sauna in Finland. We sort of defined the Iron Sky world there - without a trace of the script - saying "whatever it is going to be, it has to have music by Laibach and Führer-role by Udo Kier". That sort of puts it in the certain world already.

It worked beautifully. Such a perfect match for the film, especially Laibachs America playing at the end.

Yeah, was awesome collaboration. The folk of Laibach are just amazing to work with, best part of the whole process to be honest.

Is it possible to tell us something secret about the sequel? Can't wait for it to hit the cinema.

The enemy is closer than you think.

Ocean Nazis. Called it.

That's another story.

Can it be farther? Communists from Mars... gives new meaning to red planet

Maybe!

Cheers from Brasil! The first trailers had a darker mood but the final movie was more comedy oriented. Was it done on purpose to easy the subject? What is in store for future prequels/sequels?

There's few reasons. First, when we did the first teaser, we had absolutely no idea what the script could be. We just thought that Moon Nazis would make a fun movie, and here's a bunch of things we'd loved to see in the film (motorcycles on Moon, Swastika-shaped fortress etc.), so we slammed a promo together based on that info.

When we actually started to write the story we found ourselves having so much fun with all the aspects of the film that it would've been a waste of time to do a film too seriously, so the tone was turned into two directions we didn't predict in the beginning: lighter on the surface, but much more politically satirical and biting on the deep level. And I'm happy about that, making a film about Moon Nazis and being too serious about it would be a bit too much torta-på-torta as our dear neighbours in Sweden might say.

When my son interviewed you at the Director's cut viewing in Germany you said it was a race to the last minute to get the film out on time. What setbacks did you face during the filming?

First, we had enormous trouble getting the money together. We had to do amazing tricks to get what we needed (one of them being crowdfunding, which luckily worked). Then, with production, we went over budget a lot, mostly because of ridiculously bad weather - snowstorms in Frankfurt when it wasn't supposed to snow, worst floods in Australia since 50's or something like that - and we were never able to recover from that. And then, well, with the distribution we had some bad luck with some distributors, namely one specific which I won't bother mentioning, and we lost a lot of money there.

What made you decide to use the "Hitler reacts to X" style chewing out that Vivian Wagner (played by Peta Sergeant) gives to her direct subordinates?

It sparked me one day that that would be an amazing way to introduce the character. It wasn't that big thing during that time, so I had to explain it over and over again to everyone, the actor, the writer, the producers, the DOP and they still didn't understand what I was doing. Not until the premiere when 2000 people in the audience laughed out at that gag, they realized I had something in mind for that bit.

What are your feelings to the positive/negative reactions to Iron Sky?

If you're ever in Northern Ireland, I'll buy you a Guinness! We also have great tax incentives for films to come and shoot in our professional studio spaces, if you're ever on the lookout for locations!

On positive reviews, I'm of course flattered and happy, but negative reviews... It really differs. Usually you read a review with a negative tone and realize there'd be nothing you could've done better to make this person like the film more, and those I don't give two shits. But sometimes there are reviewers who slap you with something and it takes few minutes to recover from it, especially in the beginning when the film was launched it was a bit hard to get over, being completely exhausted from the production and then having to deal with that shit, but I guess Laibach's guy reminded me of how badly some of their later-huge-classic albums were treated when they were released and it was a good reminder that sometimes some things might take a while to get the acceptance.

But in short, I don't really care that much about the reviews, all I wish they are well written and thought over and that the reviewer has done his or hers' job as thoroughly as I've done the film, and then - well, they are entitled to whatever opinion and I'm proud they take their time off and share it based on my film.

Hi Timo, on the indiegogo page for the new Iron Sky movie you state that you want to "make and distribute the film exactly the way we believe it needs to be made".

Has that something to do with the way you have been treated by distributors like Revolver and do you aim to be able to do things like sell the Blu-Ray outside of Finland?

This has a lot to do with that. Iron Sky was born and built with a very close relationship with Internet, so a lot of the things happened when the film came out for the first time. The problem was that it wasn't coming out at the same time all around the world, when people would've wanted it the most. I am aware that a day-and-date release is out of hands of mere mortals, but our intention is to do something like that with Iron Sky II or die trying.

If there was one person that inspired you the most who would it be? Also if you had to make a movie either about ketchup or mustard which one would you pick?

I'd say David Lynch; his approach to filmmaking has always been less completely strained with the need to tell a clear story, and more about taking the joy out of the medium of filmmaking.

I'd go with mustard. Stick it in wounds and people do anything for you.

Hei Timo, cheers from Finland!

How much experience did you have when you made Iron Sky? My first impression is that Iron Sky is a more serious movie compared to Star Wreck. That is, both have parody and are fun, but I think Iron Sky tries to give a richer and more solid history to focus on along the film. Was this your intention?

(Also, I beg to differ, there's something better than promoting your ass in reddit: promoting your ass in reddit while having a beer.)

I took filmmaking much more seriously after the success of Star Wreck, to be honest. With Star Wreck, I never really believed it would become as become thing as it did, and we did it as a hobby. With Iron Sky, I realized I'm responsible for quite huge chunks of money, and can fuck everything up by showing up few hours late or acting like an asshole. I tried that for a while with Iron Sky until my producers slapped me and made me realize this is a group effort, not some fun hobby we are making anymore, and although we can have fun, we are responsible for this. I was quite young when I started with Iron Sky, so I grew and got better and more respectful filmmaker.

Thanks! I suppose that Star Wreck means a lot to you, then? (And to the whole team, it was clearly something you did for fun (nice rendering farm, heh!))

Well, it's how we all started, something without what we'd be nowhere.

I'm a film student in Chile and I gotta say I love the irony and style of Iron Sky, not really a question just idk, hello.

Thanks, Chile!

Die now, or live forever?

Now.

How do you really feel about people screening your movies without asking for permission first?

-OSU Scandinavian Club secretary

I feel great! And hope they do, too! And will feel even greater after they've done it and then run to our store or to our crowdfunding campaign and give us all their moneys!

Hey Timo. Iron Sky was the best satire I have seen since young Frankenstein, and it sounds like you want to pick on N Korea for the sequel. Tell me you're going to make fun of Dennis Rodman too. please work him into it!!!

Ooh, Dennis Rodman, what a great idea!

Honestly, I must say, although the little video plays a lot with North Korea, the idea is not all about NK, it goes much ... well. Deeper.

I said too much.

Time travel Nazis! In 1945 and the closing of the war, a select group of high-ranking nazis use a time machine to appear in 2015 :)

Also on another note: My father rented Star Wreck instead of Star Trek once, you're worse than absolution film ;) But it was one of the funniest mistake ever.

Nice :D

Awesome dude. Keep making great stuff. Iron Sky was the sharpest thing to come along since "Mars Attacks!"

That means a lot, thanks!

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Yeaah... i know..

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Yeah..

Would you rather fight 1 horse sized duck or 100 duck sized horses?

Thanks. Having been a long-time Redditor I've had a chance to think about this for few years now, and I would go for 100 duck-sized horses.

If you were given a blockbuster, major studio budget for Iron Sky - Would you have changed any part of the film? If so what?

Storywise, I probably would've had to change the main character from a female nazi to male American, and would've had to tune down the political satire of the film. We, on the other hand, would possibly had money to do some good Moon Nazis on streets of New York fight scenes, you now, some city warfare (not just spaceships attacking distant city). But all in all, I think it would've been worse and more boring film that way.

I absolutely loved Iron Sky. Also I had a girl over once and we watched it, and then made out. So thank you for that.

Happy to spread love. Feel like king hippie.

Hey Timo, I loved both your films and I'm eagerly awaiting the next ones, but I have just one minor niggle about Iron Sky: it's set in 2018 and it's frequently mentioned in the film that it's an election year, meaning the previous elections must have taken place in 2014, which, as we know, is 2 years early. Did you ever actually work out a reason/backstory on why there was an election in 2014 (unexpected resignation or death of the previous president or whatever), or did you just come up with the year by chance and only later realise it didn't make sense? :)

Yeah, there is a backstory. Current president re-instated an old election law which hasn't been in use since 1800's or even 1700's (can't remember it right now, I'm sure somebody else does, but it does exist) which states that in case president and vice president die simultaneously, a re-election must be held. So, it says that for some reason current US president revoked that paragraph back into action, then something happened, US president and vice president got killed by the end of this year / early 2014, so re-election was held, She got chosen, and now it's 2018 and her first 4-year-term is almost over.

What was the hands-down funniest situation with Iron Sky (during production or afterwards)?

There was a lot of great fun moments. Working with the grand old masters Udo Kier and Thilo Prückner were by far the greatest times. Tilo was so deep in his role as Dr. Richter, running around the set, answering to "phonecalls from Führer", and speaks practically no English at all. And Udo's stories were amazing. It's hard to say one specifically funniest situation other than just these two old gentleman fooling around in set wearing nazi uniforms, singing out of tune all crazy tunes and just having a blast.

1) What's your favorite "underrated" movie, a hidden gem that that most people might not be familiar with?

2) What's the biggest lesson you learned from making Star Wreck or Iron Sky? A trick you picked up, or a mistake you'll try your hardest to avoid in the future?

3) On a scale of 9.5-10, how awesome is the writer of Jeremiah Harm?

1) Hedwig and the Angry Inch - my favorite movie of all time, yet few people know about it. Well, at least not that many. 2) From Star Wreck it probably would be storyboarding, importance of good pre-planning and test screeninigs. From Iron Sky it's definitely the respect on all fields of filmmaking - no part of the machine is more or less important than your role. 3) Well, let alone the writer of Jeremiah Harm. He might be more important than anyone!

First of let me say I absolutely loved Iron Sky (Was at the Dutch premiere @ Imagine). One of the things how did the fiasco with Revolver distribution go? Secondly, will Star Wreck be released in HD some time in the future?

I can't wait for the sequel.

To be honest, lawyers will get angry at me if I talk too much about Revolver case. Well, if anything, Revolver went bankruptcy (at least that's how I understood) and we got the rights back. We lost shitload of money but at least we can give a new try to it in UK.

We shot Star Wreck on a DV, so it would need to be a HD blowup (rendering wouldn't be a problem), so I'm really hoping that it will happen one day. We've had talks about it, yes.

1) What video games do you enjoy playing?

2) How did you come up with the name "LeonBlank"?

1) Now I re-play Skyrim, but usually have one similar first-person adventure in the works (just finished Bioshock Infinity). 2) It's one of David Bowie's characters on his album 1. Outside, which I consider being one of the best, if not the best, album ever recorded by a human being.

My wife is a fan of yours; she says of Iron Sky: "It's a fucking amazing movie.. I wish it would get more exposure. I thought the satire was hilarious!" She asks if Vivian Wagner, the dominatrix advising Sarah Palin, was based on anyone in particular.

Something out of my fantasies and nightmares simultaneously, I guess. No specific name to pinpoint. Originally it was actually two characters, Vivian Wagner and space ship captain Astro Willis, but we combined them and it became something rather lunatic.

My wife says, "It's too bad I'm married because I'm the real life version of his fantasy/nightmare, lol." :D No reply needed, I know these AMAs are time consuming. Thanks!

Too bad indeed ;)

Cheers from Germany! First I must say, that your movie Iron Sky is just epic!!! It inspired me a lot for my drawings. But some things wondered me a bit. Like how was it possible that Renates clothes were flying away as she met Washington? nevertheless it was a funny scene! And have you ever expected to get so much attention on this movie? what was your wish to be one day, as you were a child?

Renate's clothes were torn off of her because of the escaping air pressure from the airlock.

To be honest, never expected anything like what we got with Iron Sky as attention, but I'm happy for it. It was a great start.

As a kid I think I wanted to be a policeman. Then I wanted to be many things. Never considered filmmaking until I was too deep in the business to turn back.

A couple of questions regarding Jeremiah Harm.

1. Jouko Ahola portrayed the character of Jeremiah Harm in the concept trailer. Obviously you are going to cast someone bigger to the final movie, but will you have a role for Jouko in the final movie? Would love to see him play a brutal intergalactic bad guy.

2. I believe the budget of Jeremiah Harm was reported to be in the $20M range, are the producers looking to cast one really big A-lister to the lead who would be able to pre-sell the movie on his own, or are they looking for an ensemble cast, with several big name actors? Do you have any favorites you would like to see cast in the lead?

Keep up the good work!

1. That's my plan! I don't think I've ever worked with anyone so humble and intense than with Jouko Ahola, and I definitely want to cast him for a nice role in the film, although main role it might not be.

2. Yeah, we are looking to cast a big A-lister to pre-sell. It all boils down to who plays Jeremiah, everything else will fall into its' place after that.

I loved Iron Sky. Excellent movie!

Nazi's from the moon... how did you come up with that? That's a really "out there" idea. Also, what is going on with the sequel in terms of story?

EDIT: None of my friends heard about it. I have to show it to them. When they ask what it is I compare it to Mars Attacks but instead of mars it's the moon and instead of martians it's nazis.

Nazis on the Moon is a very well-known conspiracy theory, check out more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vril

Sequel.. well, won't tell too much other than what can be deducted from the name, but it's going to be darker and way more epic.

What's the best way to access the film in the UK?

Should be available on stores now, since I heard... Well, better not go into rumours. But you should find it in stores at the moment everywhere. Now, if you don't mind waiting a bit we're working to get a proper release in UK for the director's cut later this year.

The Jeremiah Harm trailer reminded of Duke Nukem. Would you consider doing a Duke Nukem movie?

I wouldn't say no, if the script was good. I think there'd be better games made into amazing movies, maybe Duke is in the end a bit one-dimensional to carry a film the way he carries a game, but then again, a good script.. Why not.

Out of all games out there I'd loved to do a film about Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. And out of all type of games, I'd loved to do a film or even a TV-series based on Paranoia the roleplaying game.

I am extremely excited for Jeremiah Harm. I've been watching and waiting for more info from it ever since the promo first came out.

Thanks, me too. The script is extremely good and I'm very excited to get shooting the film. It's going to be really fun, in a proper scifi way.

Do you think the Illuminati is real?

I can't talk about that right now. Please PM me, let's talk more.

Is there any news of the target release date for Jeremiah Harm? It looks super interesting.

Was there anything significant cut out of Iron Sky that you wish you could have kept in?

(Ja hei Timo! Olin energialla töissä 3d grunttina Iron Skyn aikaan. Onnea vaan uusien projektien kans.)

Harm is now well on its' way, we are casting at the moment, but no release date set yet. From Iron Sky, I would've loved to have a bit more hands-on-combat, and there was a very nice car chase sequence we had to lose because of budget.

Would you be willing to do a sequel? By the way, loved the film! Hilarious work.

We are doing a sequel right now. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/iron-sky-the-coming-race/x/110118

Hey Timo, My name is Thomas "Spaz" Hill II I'm the composer that contacted you for Iron Sky.

Will your band be doing the music again, or will you hire a composer?

Cheers Bro, -Spas

I do have a band (two, actually) ÄLYMYSTÖ: http://www.alymysto.com/ and VIIHTEEN UUSI AALTO: http://viihteenuusiaalto.bandcamp.com/ but neither of them have done music for my films. Maybe they are a bit too experimental and too noise. For Iron Sky sequel Laibach will do the music, for other productions, nothing is completely set yet. I do think first music and then picture always so it's a big big deal for me.

Did you have a lot of publicity because of illegal downloads of the movie? Or do you think the movie would have been this successful without the likes of pirate bay?

I don't think it's possible to be successful without being successful on Pirate Bay.

I liked Iron Sky, I thought it had some funny bits in it.

My question: how are you?

I'm fine. My feet are a bit cold because outside is rather cold at the moment, and I'm wondering what to do here in Arkngthamz, but other than that, I'm fine. Thanks for asking. Well, to be honest, I'm a bit stressed out and have been a bit busy, you know, in a need of good rest I guess. You?

Hi Timo! You had this character in Iron Sky that resembles Sarah Palin a lot. I know there's a group that is boycotting Netflix because of that, but have you received any personal "threats" or anything like that because of that character?

Thanks for your awesome work, can't wait to see more of it!

I did receive a lot of negative feedback from that, all the way up to threats, by people who felt I was making fun of Sarah Palin. Which wasn't true. I was making fun of the whole international politics scheme.

How many refrences to other movies, games, films (Such as Doctor Who, Halo, Star Wars, etc.) are in Iron Sky?

It's all about references; i must say I don't always even remember which one is a reference and which one is some strange thought popped up somewhere during the production. There's definitely direct references to Dr. Who, Star Wars, Dr. Strangelove, Starship Troopers, The Great Dictator, Downfall, Viivi and Wagner (Finnish comic book).

Greetings from America! I would ask about the next Iron Sky film but I'll wait until I get the first draft of the script. What I really want to ask is the directors cut of Iron Sky, when can I see it? Netflix says it has it but when I watched the movie, it was the original version! I know you're in talks to get the cut on dvd and blu-ray but I hope Netflix will show it soon.

Netflix doesn't have the Director's Cut outside of Nordic Countries. We are right now prepping a int'l release for the Director's Cut, hope to get there soon!

Late in the game, but in case you're still reading: is it true that the president character was originally going to be based on Jena Bush as opposed to Palin?

Yes

Hi Timo, You emailed fans to gain funding in the early stages of Iron Sky. Taking part would have been fun in itself, contributing to making the movie happen BUT....what % return did investors get on the movie ? (In other words....how much should I regret passing up the opportunity :p ) Thanks

Since film money moves damn slow, it still remains to be seen what the investors will get eventually, we unfortunately won't know until the end of the year after all the deals have been realized.

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Regarding Red Planet, can't reveal too much about the story yet. For Supanova, I remember that and definitely want to go back there, great convention.

First off lemme say this movie was amazing. Love cult films like this. You had a ton of references and inside jokes in the film, what was the biggest one you left out of the film?

Not sure if we left anything major reference out deliberately at least, can't remember, because many of the ref were born quite fast and inserted quickly.

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People who watch 10-15 minutes of a film and then turn it off.

A second question if I may, about the crowdfunding campaign for Coming Race: Is it possible to have a reward tier that includes a DVD of the movie as a reward? I realize of course that the movie would spend a long time in the theatres and a DVD wouldn't come out until several months after release, but I'm sure backers wouldn't mind waiting.

I myself am backing the project anyway, but I'm surprised you haven't reached your goal yet, and I believe it's because people don't feel right backing something that they don't get to own at the end of it.

We thought about having a tier with the movie, but given that the film is not close to getting ready any time soon, we thought we'll tie the tiers up to the first phase (development) at this phase, so people can enjoy the tiers faster.

Can you make Iron Sky 2 come out quicker in America please and when are you hoping for the release of it? Can't wait

That's exactly the reason we're crowdfunding, not running after presale money.

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No, I'll let you do those. You remember to drop me an email when you're done?

Did you work directly with the writers Johanna Sinisalo and Michael Kalesniko on this?

Yes, with both. We started out with Johanna and when we went English, we worked more with Michael

Greetings, Timo. when, if ever, do you envision Iron Sky seen on American cable TV?

It's out on Netflix in US now, and it's been on some cable channels I think, but the distributor don't always inform us

"Light Balls, I thought you said Light Beers?!?"

As a Trekkie, I thought that was classic!

Have you ever corresponded with the online writer AlbertG (Fanfiction.com) who has done a series of really well written cross-over stories involving Star Trek and B5?

No, I haven't.

I've been a subject of fan fiction myself, though. Actually, a proper slash fiction if that's what it's called. Didn't find it something I should pursue further at that point.

iPhone or Android?

iPhone and Nokia at the moment. I use iPhone with US sim card in the states and Nokia for int'l calls. At home mostly iPhone.

I just finished watching this on Netflix and loved it!

My question is was the very ending of a metaphor about how we can get together for a common purpose but ultimately greed will destroy us all? Or I'm just overthinking it?

Again great movie!

I guess the big thing in the end is that we will kill ourselves with greed, but hope for mankind is never truly lost, it sparkles in the weirdest, most unpredictable places, shapes and forms. To be honest, I'm not as misogynistic as the ending would guess, I do believe that mankind will never destroy itself truly, that we will always maybe dance on the very edge of the knife but in the end we'll survive.

Is Answerer 2 really you?

No, answerer 1 is me. Have no idea who nr. 2 is or what's his/her's problem.

Congratulations on Iron Sky! Laibach was a great choice for the soundtrack. I have two questions really. 1. How do you go about choosing a composer for your films? And 2. As an aspiring composer, is there a possibility to send you a showreel of my work?

I've been a big fan of Laibach ever since god knows when, and realized very early on that this is a perfect match for the film. You can send your reel to timo@ironsky.net (but be aware, it seems there's quite a lot of composers out there, I get reels every day sent to me and I'm very anal with my music picks, only working with very specifically defined artists).

So I'm not saying you copied my friends and I on the Moon Nazi idea, nor am I suggesting that our crappy thrown together spoof of scifi is anywhere close to what you created, but had you seen Helicopters on the Moon when you shot Iron Sky? It's a crappy project from almost 3 years ago that my friends/ classmates and I made for highschool film class. It features Moon nazis and helicopters... Just curious, we always joke that you copied us...I mean we know you probably didn't... https://vimeo.com/23668208

No, unfortunately I hadn't seen it. Needs to checks it outs!

1) Are you a Scandinavia and the world fan?

2) Is her depiction of Finland accurate?

I am and yes, it is.

Woah I had waited so long for ironsky to come out, did i miss it? does this mean i can go watch it now? awesome.

Yeah, missed it by a year and a half. Depending on where you are located in, now you can catch it from Netflix or buy it as a DVD or BluRay, it ran its' theatrical course a long time ago.

IRON SKIES was one of the best movies I've watched in ages!

Quick question about the sequel: It's about the communists in the center of the earth isn't it?

I've always known they were under there. Waiting.

"Iron Sky" to be exact :) And no, I won't tell anything on what it's about :D

Sorry about the spelling, I got excited. V_V

Yeah I do that often, too. Get excited.

Will you ever plan on making a comedy related to past world events?

I think a Cold War parody would be funny.

You read my mind. Yes, we are working on a prequel TV-series based on Iron Sky, which would answer to the question "why did the Americans land on the Moon in 1969 -- and why they never came back after 1973."

Hi Timo. When will you get into pre-production for the Jeremiah Harm movie? Are you considering hiring? I live in Estonia and I am looking for a job. www.giampietrobalia.com

We are in early pre-production already, but will know a bit more once we lock the cast. We are looking to shoot in studios in Hungary so it might be a bit far off there, but you never know :)

Will there be any more Doctor Who easter eggs in your future films?

Who knows!

Hey Timo was wondering since Iron Sky has become a cult classic how have things changed for you since the movie?

I'm busier, get more ladies wanting to have sex with me, go to more parties and travel all the time.

Dear Timo, i just recently found out that you are conducting - more or less as a director of the story - an impromtu musical collaboration called VIIHTEEN UUSI AALTO (The Advanced Entertainment Movement???). What are your goals on that in particular and does this have anything to do with your duties in film industry?

My intention is to become god of sound.

what would you doing if you were not directing films?

Before, I was a telemarketeer. Probably something to do with marketing, I think.

What do you think about the genuine conspiracy theories about Nazis setting up a secret base in the Antarctic/Dark Side of the Moon?

I think it's a load of bullshit, but I do think Nazis did have some less-spoken-of experiments, and if there really happened something in Roswell, I'm inclined to link it with those experiments.

I just downloaded Iron Sky from piratebay. Do you hate me?

No, I think you are awesome! Hope you like the film!