IAMA director of IRON SKY THE COMING RACE and just released a promo with Hitler riding T-Rex! I'm here with producer and other people behind the madness -- Ask Us Anything!

First of all thank you for doing Iron Sky 2. I REALLY love Iron Sky and i already love the new teaser. Hollow earth, vril, dinosaur-hitler, reptilian shapeshifter, just WOW. Really looking forward to the movie.

I was a fan extra in Frankfurt for Iron Sky and my question is, do you think this will be possible for Iron Sky 2 too? I really love supporting the movie and already supporting it as hard as i can, but this would be awesome. I actually would even pay to be a extra in the movie.

Timo: Abso-frigging-lutely. We'll be shooting in Berlin this time around, and will be having even more opportunities for fan extras to show up, because, well, we had damn fun. Here's a video from the fan extra day:

I thought depictions of Nazis was illegal in Germany?

Not in art, it's not. You can't show Nazi symbolics on marketing material, but otherwise you're free to go.

Thanks for this AMA, Timo! While creating this film, have you ever thought "This seems a little over the top, let's tone it down a little"?

Jarmo: I find it quite strange, that the one thing we're most told was too ridiculous in the first film was shooting a gun in space. Especially since it's actually possible.

I blame Firefly.

Timo: Yeah, i do worry about it sometimes, but somehow I have formed a very strict rules on what's possible and what's not, what's too crazy and what's not.

Tero: From the producers point of view i'm happy that the story is crazy enough after the nazis from the moon. but yes, we need to be right with the tone.

Hey guys. First of all, I wanted to say that I enjoyed the hell out of Iron Sky. It was one of the most delightfully absurd movies I've watched (that's a compliment, for what it's worth).

How in the world did the concept for it come about? I can't imagine someone just woke up one day, shot straight up in bed, and said "Moon Nazis... yes!"

Secondly, I know that here in the US, we have a very different view, culturally, of the historical events around WW2 and the Nazi ideology in general. Did your own views or the cultural views you live in shape any of the choices around the movies?

Actually, it was a bit like that. Jarmo, the father of the idea, had a dream where he was riding a bicycle and there was Adolf Hitler sitting on the back of the bike, yapping angrily to his ear. When he had woken up, he had this idea in his head. Then, we had a sauna evening later that day and he told us about the idea. We were laughing first, but few years later, we found out we were working on the very film itself.

Regarding the cultural views on Nazis - definitely. Finland was both at war with the Nazis, and collaborating with them. We had Nazi garrisons in Finland and very close connections with Nazis for a while, but also Nazis basically burned half of the country as they were fleeing. Our view for Nazis is, because of this, a bit further away than with Germans, but also closer than say the Brits or the Americans, and it makes it possible for us treat them in a very specific tone.

Will there be kung fu?

Yes, actually there will be!

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Yes there Vril.

If a white person drinks de-albiniser will they turn black?

I would say not. What de-albiniser does it erases the effect of the albiniser, messing with the skin cells pigment, and de-albiniser reverts this.

Hi. I really love your films since In The Pirkinning (and of course i already backed The Coming Race). What i really like about Iron Sky is that it had it all: pure childish fun, slapstick, some oldfashioned clishées, internet-memes, lots of irony, satire and at the end of it even some very grim, dark and depressing humour. And above all you managed to address some important political and cultural topics. I'd guess that it's quite a challenge to top that, but i believe, that you learned a lot in the process of Iron Sky that you will put to good use in The Coming Race, right?

So, my question:

Will you pick up and comment actual conflicts and events like IS or The West vs. Putin or the NSA harvesting all our data for good?

Edit: changed the question since the first version was already answered.

Jarmo: Thanks! The second film will carry on some of the themes. Let's just say there's going to be less politics and more religion.

I gotta say, I LOVED Iron sky. It has a nice art style behind it. Unfortunately I had to watch it online because it didn't get shown in cinema's down here.

Critics were not so optimistic about your first film, yet you guys decide to make a sequel. Is this to give the critics a middle finger or don't you care about critics at all?

Timo: Critics are irrelevant when you are working on a film about Nazis on the Dark Side of the Moon. Regarding the distribution, we're set to solve the issue this time around by enforcing a day-and-date -strategy upon distributors.

Considering the 'coming race' are you expecting any hate mail from David Icke? Or worse, praise for promoting the idea?

Timo: I'm chasing to get a cameo from him.

Holy shit, famous Finnish people on reddit? I watched Iron Sky from Netflix with a huge hangover and couldn't really focus on it, should I rewatch it? Also the mock of Hitler hears about something was really funny.

Also, moro mitä kuuluu?

Edit: What do you think about the Iron Sky gambling game on the Veikkaus website? It was very laggy for me but I won one euro from it.

Jarmo: It was really nice working with Veikkaus. It's not an exaggeration when they say they're a huge supporter of the arts. Don't think I ever tried that game though. I'm more of a pajatso guy myself.

And yeah, you might want to re-watch Iron Sky. Possibly while drunk this time.

Hey guys. With the Hollow Earth/Lost World concept, are there some particular stories you have drawn inspiration from or pay homage to, like maybe Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or some comic book stories?

Jarmo: For me it's Donald Duck.

No, really. We are raised on that stuff here in Finland. Carl Barks and Don Rosa are national heroes here.

In Iron Sky, I felt the soundtrack supported the film amazingly, but what direction are you going to with Laibach for The Coming Race?

Timo: That's a good question, we don't really know exactly yet to be honest, but we're discussing this now with Laibach, but I know it's going to be something completely different this time around.

Hey guys! Thank yall for doing this and for brining Iron Sky back for round 2! I gotta ask, was the final scene from Iron Sky play any significance in this film or future films? I wouldn't mind some Soviets from Mars coming in to save the day... Or make things worse!

Timo: Yes, it's rooting for nr. 3

When are finally going to do a movie about communists hiding in space after the fall of the berlin wall?? I want to see Mars: The Red Planet.

That's the third movie.

Will there be even more Reichsflugscheiben?

We've replaced the Reichsflugscheiben with dinosaurs.

I was a body double extra for Washington for 2 days when you were shooting on the Gold Coast in Australia. I never actually ended up getting paid anything for those 2 days. It was a long time ago and I tried chasing it up, but i never got any emails back. What's up with that?

That sucks. I'm sure there's some reasonable explanation to this, but I'll grab this personally under inspection and see what's the holdup. Send email to my email and I'll see what to do: timo@ironsky.net

What is your favorite pokemon?

You.

Hey Timo, it was great following the viral campaign for Iron Sky. Are you guys going to do more cool stuff for the sequel?

We're doing as much cool material as possible constantly. It's one of the best parts in making Iron Sky - we have quite the free hands to come up with all kind of insanity and put it out there. There's nobody saying we shouldn't do that or this, and especially now, that we've proven with first Iron Sky we approximately know what we're doing, it's almost expected from us to go as crazy as possible.

Jarmo: Of course. It would feel weird not to.

Oh, I'm so glad to see this. I just watched the first one earlier this year and got so giddy seeing it left open for a sequel. My question is: is the presidents hand transforming a reference to the reptilian conspiracy theory?

Yes.

I love the first movie and Laibach. How was it working with them during the making of the last movie?

Timo: They are a very interesting unit which works on a very interesting method. They have a great sense of humour and amazing work ethic, and I enjoyed building the music with them probably the most of any specific part of the film production.

Cashews. Yay or nay?

Not a nut nut.

Will there be more Iron Sky Comic Books?

Yes.

There are Iron Sky comic books?! Why has nobody told me?

Jarmo: You'd have to ask IDW. They made a very nice comic book but no-one heard about it.

I'm too tired to even try to say this in english, so: Tähtäättekö Coming Racen kanssa ollenkaan elokuvateatteriesityksiin, vai onko tarkoituksena vain "suora jakelu"? Anyway, loved Iron Sky & Star Wreck, and can't wait for this! -Much love from finland

Yes, Iron Sky is headed first and foremost to as wide theatrical release as possible.

How much stress is the crowdsourcing approach causing for the Iron Sky crew and production financially?

Do you consider yourselves as pioneers in this in the movie industry?

Jarmo: When you're making an independent European film there's always going to be financial stress. In some ways crowdfundng feels really liberating, since we're talking directly to the audience, not to a company that's using exel spreadsheet to make educated guesses about what film they could sell to the audience.

Back in 2005 we released the first creative commons licensed feature film called Star Wreck. It was made directly for the internet and got quite an audience. In many ways it feels we were more pioneers back then.

Quite honestly, back then I thought that by now all films would be made for the internet first. It's a bit frustrating a global digital release and crowdfunding is still a rarity in this day and age.

Tero: The crowdsourcing needs a lot of work definitely also in our end. It needs manpower and time and naturally this needs also money. But its a very integral part of making Iron Sky and we constantly develop the ways to do it. Yes, I think we are among the first ones who use this effectively.

Hey Timo, Besides tons of dinosaurs, can we expect any more crazy cameos (besides Tom Green), or possibly a reincarnated Udo?

Yes, Udo will be back and some crazy cameos are coming along too constantly!

Three questions:

My SO asks: WHY? Why did you do this?

From me: Was there any outcry to Iron Sky and how did you deal with it?

Also how difficult was it to actually get the first one made?

To your SO, I'd like to answer in length. We shot a promo for Iron Sky The Coming Race because of three main reasons: first, I wanted to create a bridge between Iron Sky 1 and 2, something that leads us towards the plot of the sequel, but takes in account where we left off with Iron Sky 1. The second reason was that I wanted to re-ignite the fans again. That there's a new film coming, and get them excited, and get them supporting the CF campaign. Third reason was because I was worried if we'd be capable of doing good creature effects. I think the promo shows we're in good hands.

Iron Sky 1 had multiple outcries. The film critics thought it was horrible and that they were insulted personally. I'm not sure what they were expecting when lining up for tickets in Berlin to get to see a film about Nazis on the Dark Side of the Moon, but apparently it wasn't for their liking. Luckily, the audience thought differently. The Sarah Palin fans also got all pissed off at one point and my Twitter was full of death threats for a while. I also heard some neo-nazis got angry because they were hoping us to do a nazi-glorifying film, and it turned out we were just pissing all over Hitler's grave for fun...

How difficult, yes, that's a good question. Well, let's say: first-time director trying to raise biggest budget ever for a Finnish film, about a topic everyone thought was just way out there, with a script nobody understood anything about. Yes, it was hard. It took us 6 years to fund the whole thing.

Will there be more Valkyries, Space Zeppelins, or other craft from the first film? What about the Nazi Moon Fortress and the Götterdämmerung? :)

We have a new enemy this time, with a new kind of an army.

I love the scene with the guys playing basketball getting approached by the albinised astronaut. The nonchalant way he approaches the black guys playing basketball was priceless. LOL! What was your direction for that scene?

That was actually the first scene we shot for the film, so I remember everything a bit fluffy and fuzzy because I was so nervous, being first time on a bigger set. But the scene kinda played out itself, Chris Kirby (Washington) was also helping a lot, pulling in some good funny improvising...

What ended up happening to that Iron Sky video game that was being worked on in the days of Wreckamovie?

Also, I'm pretty excited for this movie. The first wasn't perfect, but I liked it a lot. Udo Kier was perfect, as always, it looked great, had some fantastic jokes, especially the one with North Korea claiming the ships were theirs. It really reminded me in style of the Red Alert series of games. Keep up the awesome work!

Timo: The people who were working on the game somehow stopped working on the game. I don't really know what happened, but I think they just didn't see the game having realistic chances at that time, unfortunately. We, the filmmakers, had basically nothing to do with the game. Nor did we have anything to do with the actual released game, Iron Sky Invasion.

I'm actually glad to hear you had nothing to do with Iron Sky Invasion. It was pretty damn bad. I mean, not worth the $1-2 I paid for it.

Yeah... They asked me to direct it and said yeah, but they didn't send me a script until the last day and the script was some 600-700 pages of dialogue. I asked how many shooting years they had in mind and stepped out of the project when they said they had 2 days reserved. So I'm not surprised the game didn't really work, I just feel bad it's now attached to Iron Sky world.

Eka Iron Sky oli erittäin hyvä elokuva. Onko toka osa viimeinen vai tuleeko kolmas? Ja mistä te keksitte kaikki nämä ideat?

Kolmas osa on myös suunnitelmissa. Ideat syntyvät yleensä selaamalla nettiä liian myöhään ja menemällä nukkumaan pää täynnä sattumanvaraisesti kasautunutta informaatiota, joista yöllä sitten muodostuu tarinoita jotka kuulostavat yhtäkkiä hulluudessaan helvetin hauskoilta.

Iron Sky was full of great plot and backstory, how have you approached including even more plot this time?

Timo: The plot goes back in time 65 million years, so there's quite a lot of ground to cover.

Will there be more Laibach?

Absolutely

Samuli Torssonen did a heroic effort providing the special effects for Iron Sky. Why are you using Pixomondo this time and not TrollVFX (Energia Production)? I really liked Samuli's attitude and the CGI diaries. :)

Many reasons, but mostly funding-related. This time around, bigger part of our budget comes from Germany, so we need to have a major chunk of our costs in Germany, too.

Hi,

watching your trailer it seems that you hav a pretty safe budget. Can we assume that the movie will be created even if you don't get the amount of cash on indiegogo that you ask for?

BTW, I think Iron Sky (the original) is the best movie in terms of making me laugh out hard throughout the entire length :D

Jarmo: I'd like add to Tero's answer. Why is keeping distribution control so important? Because for the first Iron Sky there was almost a year between the first country getting it's premiere and the last country. And there was no hope of a global online release. It's tough for an independent film to get seen, but there's no technical reason anymore. Anyone wo wants to see Hitler ride a T-Rex should be able to do so.

Tero: We want to maximize the crowdfunding in order to keep the distribution control in our own hands. If we would not reach the goal we fill in other financing. The movie will be created definitely.

Have you ever been in a speed boat?

No.

I bought a Raumsturmführer cap from you guys when you were still pitching (At Assembly) the idea for the first Iron Sky. The cap is looking a bit worn out by now, so I'm wondering if those caps are anymore available?

It's been a nice cap, I was the envy of the town hipsters with that one.

Unfortunately, there isn't any more Raumsturmführer-caps, so keep it safe, it may be worth something in the years to come.

Which of the original cast are making another appearance in the sequel?

Julia Dietze, Udo Kier and Stephanie Paul, at least.

I liked the first one, but its teaser was on a whole different level.

What satirical films from other teams would you group Iron Sky with?

Starship Troopers is our all-time favorite for sure.

Will this movie be in theaters??

Iron Sky The Coming Race will be released in theatres, yes.

I randomly found Iron Sky on Netflix when browsing drunk with a friend of mine and it was so incredibly confusing when I thought it was meant to be serious. Thanks for making a film that's made me question every film since then more thoroughly!

Did you guys have to cut anything out of the first film because it was "too ridiculous"?

Timo: Yes, I had one scene where they had just landed on a field with the saucer, in New York, and there was this hippie girl who came shooting. There was a very weird scene we shot with great trouble later on when Renate and Washington return back to the ship, where the hippie girl is having a smoke with Uwe the Pilot. They play around with a gun, then smoke more weed, then the ship leaves and simultaneously the couch is lifted up in the air... it just didn't work, was too weird and felt out of place. I really loved the work of the actors but the scene just didn't work.

I'd like to say that Iron Sky was the stupidest movie I have seen in awhile, yet it had a comical plot and hilarious characters. My question is, will there be any recurring characters? On another note, how has your day been?

Timo: My day has been rather exhausting, running around Santa Monica, shooting thank you -videos for fans and doing meetings after meetings. Finally managed to find a nice chill restaurant with my gf and had a super dinner, now I'm completely knackered... Other than that, yes, there will be recurring characters - Julia Dietze as Renate Richter, Udo Kier as Wolfgang Kortzfleisch and Stephanie Paul as The President.

I enjoyed Iron Sky immensely, and I will absolutely chip in to help make a second part, no matter the outcome. And I'll make my friends do the same.

Question: when you developed the first part, how was the reaction of German sponsors and, uhm, official people? I vaguely recall that it was sponsored by national film funds - how did you sell them the idea of moon-Nazis? A few of my more conservative German friends were rather sceptic about the premise.

Tero: It was very very difficult to sell to german distributors before they saw the film and its tone. And also there was a natural challenge to convince also the other funding bodies. So yes very difficult before you could see the film. Then after the film was released things changed totally when everybody could see how we treated the subject matter.

I lol'd at Hitler riding a T-Rex in the middle of the Earth.. xD What do you find of that title?

Vril, the Power of the Coming Race is an 1871 novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Jarmo: Also referenced in David Bowie's Oh You Pretty Things.

"They're the start of a coming race / The earth is a bitch / We've finished our news / Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use"

Alright, Timo and Tero are out to meetings in LA, but Jarmo will be here for a while! Thanks a lot for all the questions and keep them coming, we'll get back to them as soon as we're back at the computer.

Okay, I'm sheading out as well. Thanks everyone! -Jarmo

Do you think it is possible to have the film in more theatres this time through? I could only see the first film on iTunes because it was only offered in one theatre twice in the middle of the day where I am.

Jarmo: Yes. This is actually a huge reason for us to do crowdfunding - to have more control over distribution.

Why are you doing this?

Jarmo: Because no-one else is. We can't live in a world where Nazis don't ride sidecart motorcycles on the Moon and Hitler doesn't ride a T-Rex now can we?

Glad you're doing an ama! I only have one question, with this film coming to a point of filming in the noar future, have you thought of what is going to happen after this film? Do you want to do another sequel? Good luck! The t-rex was amazing :-D

Timo: Yes, I have a clear plan for part 3.

What are your opinions on the future of film, should filmmakers change to higher frame rates (48 fps, like Peter Jackson and James Cameron are doing). And what about 3D?

Timo: I've found out that 3D and HFR will offer additional depth to the image for the first 10-15 minutes of the film, but after you're used to it, it's very rarely it actually gives us anything more.

Jarmo: I would have loved to see Gravity in HFR 3D. In my opinion that film was one of the futures of cinema - more of an experience than a film as we know it. Loved it to bits.

OK. What about HFR eliminating motion blur in fast camera movements?

Timo: I actually thought it was cooler than 3D. It brought me right into the set, instead of watching a picture on the screen. I do like HFR's clearness.

Will we get more Star Wreck someday?

Jarmo: Would you like some? Maybe as a totally open source film anyone could remix and reuse?

That's a question to Samuli Torssonen, but from what I've heard, he's been plotting out something interesting, yes.

The thought the designs for the spaceships in the movie eye fantastic! They were realistic in the sense that they were built with modern technology rather than futuristic. Where did you find such a great artistic design team with such a low budget?

Thanks, we're really happy about them as well. The VFX were made by a Tampere-based small VFX boutique Energia Production, now known as Troll VFX, supervised by Samuli Torssonen, and designs were done by art director Jussi Lehtiniemi.

I modelled and textured the harness on the T-Rex. Looks nice huh?

Jarmo: It does indeed.

Loved Iron Sky and looking forward to the next chapter! Hitler on a T-Rex huh? Will we be seeing any allied forces on say, Grizzly bears or Sharks?

We'll leave that mockbuster version of the film.

Will you be using wreckamovie or something similar to involve fans in the design and brainstorming? (is wreckamovie still around, I can't access it at the moment!?)

update: Jarmo, whois registry says you're the admin for wreckamovie. What's going on?

Jarmo: Unfortunately Wreckamovie is dead after many productive years. But it's not the end of crowdsourcing, we're building crowdsourcing onto the new iteration of the Iron Sky website. Hopefully we'll be able to open it up to others again later.

Loved the first movie! Having high hopes for this one. :)

But pardon me for also asking something slightly unrelated. Will Star Wreck ever get a (spiritual atleast) sequel? :D

Jarmo: I've been talking to Samuli and yeah, we'd definitely like to do another Star Wreck. But it would have to be something as groundbreaking as the previous one.

So we'll see what happens...

Do you still drool over how gorgeous this shot is: http://youtu.be/3jLaf5qj8cs?t=2m5s

Or have you seen the movie so much by this point that you can't really get into it any more?

I do like that shot a lot. Especially the tilt up to the Sun.

How much Antarctica there will be? Add more! References to "The Thing", "X-files", H.P.Lovecrafts novels etc?

Antarctica... A bit, yes. There will be a bit of antarctica.

I have one more question that I have thought off, if you get the full amount and can distribute how you want, what's the plan with cinemas? Luckily I was in London when iron sky was released and could travel to get to it but I live in Cornwall, 100s of miles away!

The main plan is to get the film in cinemas, worldwide, and as many screens as possible. So if we play our cards right (as we plan to do), you'll get it in Cornwall cinemas for sure, as well.

If there is a "The Coming Race" and "Hollow Earth" will there be VRIL, and Girls with extraordinary long hair?

Yes there vril.

Can you get Udo Kier to return somehow? He was brilliant in the first movie.

Yes, he's coming back. I'm actually going day after tomorrow to Palm Springs to catch up with him and discuss the new role.

Will Doctor Who help to save the day?

I'm sure the entertainment journalists will have no problem with us tossing in some Dr. Who :)

First off, thank you for Iron Sky. It was one of the best goofy Friday night movies I've seen, and tge ending was pitch perfect. Two questions here. The first is how do you create a sequel to the way the first ended? The second: any chance of an Israeli release? I had to work quite a bit to see the first.

Jarmo: End of the world has been the beginning for many great films. So it's not hard at all. Humanity is pretty good at surviving.

Why was the original iron sky in so few theaters? It was clearly quite popular among those who saw it (whether they hated it or loved it). It seems like you guys got shafted on distribution. Personally I loved it and it's definitely one my top 5 favourite films.

We had some big problems with distributor in UK, which led to our US distributor pulling out big portion of the theatrical distribution. It was, to be honest, a big mess and we lost a lot of business there. Our aim is to not to do the same mistakes again..

Any advice for aspiring filmmakers?

Timo: Director's advice is: don't wait around to get a permission to do your first feature. Just make it happen. After that, it's all much easier.

According to IMDB, you used Red One MX to shoot Iron Sky. What kind of camera setup do you have for The Coming Race?

Timo: I'm suggesting it's probably Arri Alexa, but we haven't made final decisions on that yet.

So... Communist Mars? Capitalist Europa?

Did you see the trailer yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jLaf5qj8cs&feature=youtu.be

How to get my wife to watch Iron Sky? I want to see it and keep casually working it into conversation but the wife will never bite! "Hey, what's that movie that everyone's talking about? Something about Nazis? On the moon...?"

It's a romantic comedy. Don't mention Nazis.

Moi Timo. Meinaatteko käyttää ns. Mövi steady camiä?

Miksei, jos on järkevää käyttöä.

Which director's work has made the biggest impact on your movies?

Timo: David Lynch. His films have taught me the importance of atmosphere in films.