Fiction Factory just finished production on a series of filmed interviews on two of Brian De Palma’s most popular thrillers, DRESSED TO KILL (1980) and BLOW OUT (1981). Pictured above (clockwise from top left) are actress Angie Dickinson (on DRESSED TO KILL), cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (on BLOW OUT), producer George Litto (on both films), Nancy Allen (on both films), and actor Keith Gordon (on DRESSED TO KILL).

The seven interviews will be featured on the upcoming French DVD and blu-ray editions of DRESSED TO KILL and BLOW OUT, announced by Paris-based Carlotta Films for 21 November.

Fiction Factory is producing a 40-minute documentary called WILL HE LIVE OR WILL HE DIE, in which legendary Hollywood writer/director Walter Hill recalls the making of his 1981 cult favourite, SOUTHERN COMFORT, starring Keith Carradine and Powers Boothe. Robert Fischer visited Hill in the latter’s Beverly Hills home and was granted a rare opportunity: This is only the third time (after a filmed introduction to THE WARRIORS in 2005 and a participation in a documentary on BROKEN TRAILS in 2006) that Walter Hill agreed to talk about one of his films in front of a camera. Fiction Factory has already licensed WILL HE LIVE OR WILL HE DIE: WALTER HILL ON SOUTHERN COMFORT to Second Sight Films (London) for their upcoming DVD and Blu-ray releases of SOUTHERN COMFORT.

These are a few images (beware of possible spoilers!) of the brand-new Fiction Factory documentary ALDRICH OVER MUNICH: THE MAKING OF »TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING«, available for licensing worldwide through Global Screen, Munich. (Global Screen also handles world rights for the digitally restored version of TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING, a Lorimar-Geria production which Robert Aldrich shot in 1976.) Featured in these first two minutes of the 66-minute documentary are, in order of appearance, Aldrich biographer Alain Silver, Aldrich’s daughter Adell, actor Gerald S. O’Loughlin, and assistant director (now a producer) Wolfgang Glattes.

Fiction Factory is finishing production on two bonus features for upcoming DVD and blu-ray releases of Markus Schleinzer’s controversial debut feature, MICHAEL. The film, which was shown in competition at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, describes the last five months of 10-year-old Wolfgang and 35-year-old Michael’s involuntary life together. Robert Fischer filmed interviews with both writer/helmer Schleinzer (45 minutes) and main actor Michael Fuith (13 minutes) last January at the Max Ophüls Preis festival in Saarbrücken, where MICHAEL won two of the main awards: best film and best actor. Kino Kontrovers will release the film on DVD in Germany. World sales of MICHAEL are handled by Les Films du Losange, Paris.

On 23 April, Park Circus, the Glasgow-based UK label for selected arthouse titles on DVD and Blu-ray, will bring out two recently restored films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder: I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME (1976) and DESPAIR (1978). Both DVDs (and, in case of DESPAIR, the blu-ray, too) will contain a feature-length documentary about the making of these films: OF LOVE AND CONSTRAINTS: SPECULATIONS ON FASSBINDER’S »I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME« features interviews with actors Vitus Zeplichal and Elke Aberle and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, while THE CINEMA AND ITS DOUBLE: FASSBINDER’S »DESPAIR« REVISITED has Ballhaus along with screenwriter Tom Stoppard, actress Andréa Ferréol and many others. Both documentaries were directed by Robert Fischer and produced by Fiction Factory, Munich. (See »Films« and »DVD/Blu-rays« for further details.)

Am 5. April 2012 erscheinen zwei neue DVDs bzw. Blu-rays mit Bonusmaterial, das von der Fiction Factory produziert wurde: EuroVideo bringt Ted Kotcheffs Kriminalkomödie DIE SCHLEMMERORGIE (Originaltitel: Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?), die begleitet wird von der Dokumentation TED KOTCHEFF’S GOURMET CINEMA: THE MAKING OF »Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe«, und in der Reihe Kino Kontrovers (Vertrieb: EuroVideo) kommt Urszula Antoniaks verstörendes Drama CODE BLUE heraus, zusammen mit ULTIMATE INTIMACY, einem einstündigen Gespräch mit der Regisseurin.

Fiction Factory just finished production on ULTIMATE INTIMACY: URSZULA ANTONIAK ON CODE BLUE, an hour-long talk with the Polish-Dutch director about her second feature film CODE BLUE which premiered last year in Cannes. With CODE BLUE, Award-winning director Urszula Antoniak (NOTHING PERSONAL) delivers an impressive portrait of an emotionally disturbed nurse who gives in to a dangerous and overwhelming longing. Tackling the subjects of isolation, devotion, and sacrifice, Antoniak crafts a visually stunning, sensual drama featuring Belgian actress Bien de Moor in a knockout performance. In ULTIMATE INTIMACY, Antoniak delivers an in-depth analysis of her film, addressing the following subjects and themes: Working on the Subconscious; Mistress of Life and Death; Habitats and Territories; The Illusion of Perfection; The Visceral and the Spirtitual; Fetichism and Voyeurism; Shared Spectatorship; Proof of Evidence; Becoming Human; Two Endings. German label Kino Kontrovers has already bought ULTIMATE INTIMACY, to be included on their upcoming DVD release of CODE BLUE.

Currently in production at Fiction Factory is ALDRICH OVER MUNICH: THE MAKING OF TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING. Extensive interviews have already been filmed with assistant director Wolfgang Glattes, actor Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Robert Aldrich’s daughter Adell and Aldrich expert Alain Silver in Los Angeles, Studio City and Santa Monica, as well as with camera operators Dieter Matzka and Gerhard Fromm in Munich. Pictured are director/producer Robert Aldrich (right) and Glattes and O’Loughlin (left) in 1976 on the set of TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING near Munich. Starring Burt Lancaster, Charles Durning, Paul Winfield, Melvyn Douglas, Joseph Cotten and Gerald S. O’Loughlin, TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING has just been restored by Bavaria Media and will come out on DVD and Blu-ray in 2012 in different territories.

Keith Gordon’s anti-war film A MIDNIGHT CLEAR, filmed in 1991 and released in 1992, was based on William Wharton’s novel and tells the story of six young US soldiers, played by Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinese, Peter Berg, Frank Whaley, Arye Gross and Kevin Dillon, in the Ardennes forest in December 1944. Now, for the first time ever worldwide, Gordon’s cult classic will be released in a brilliant new transfer and in the correct aspect ratio of 1:1.85, by Second Sight Films in Great Britain, and hopefully in other territories as well. (Home entertainment rights are available through Hollywood Classics, London.) The DVD will feature an audio commentary by Gordon and Hawke, half an hour of deleted or extended scenes, and a newly produced 50-minutes Fiction Factory documentary, »A Winter’s War«, directed by Robert Fischer. Filmed in early December 2011 in his home in Los Angeles, director-writer Keith Gordon discusses all aspects of the filmmaking process, from adapting Wharton’s novel and finding the actors to shooting in snow-covered Utah and marketing the film. A passionate, captivating monolgue by one of America’s most dedicated independent filmmakers!

Oliver Stone’s excellent TALK RADIO (1988), based on Eric Bogosian’s acclaimed off-Broadway play about a fearless, self-destructive radio shock jock, is arguably the filmmaker’s most underrated movie. Made between WALL STREET and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, it somehow slipped through the cracks — and yet it features on many cinephiles’ lists as their favourite Stone film, or is singled out as the exception by people who generally do not care for Stone. Bogosian, who also stars in the film, based his bravura performance on Alan Berg, a real-life Denver radio talk show host who was fatally shot by members of a white nationalist group. For Carlotta Films’ French DVD release of TALK RADIO (street date in France: 18 January 2012), Fiction Factory has now visited Oliver Stone in his L.A. office and created a 27-minute documentary, FILMING RAGE: OLIVER STONE ON TALK RADIO. All previous US and international DVD releases of TALK RADIO were bare of any special features — a flaw that Fiction Factory (Munich), Carlotta Films (Paris) and Mr. Stone himself were only too eager to adjust. FILMING RAGE was produced and directed by Robert Fischer and co-produced by Vincent Paul-Boncour.