Fiction Factory contributed two brand-new documentaries to the UK blu-ray release of director Norman Jewison’s sci-fi classic, ROLLERBALL (1975). The first is called THE FOURTH CITY: SHOOTING »ROLLERBALL« IN MUNICH and follows production manager Dieter Meyer as he revisits the original race track that, in the film, stood in for arenas in no less than three different cities: Madrid, Tokyo and New York.

For the second ROLLERBALL documentary from Fiction Factory, THE BIKE WORK, Robert Fischer visited stunt performer (and action film director) Craig R. Baxley in his California home and filmed his recollections about staging and performing some of the most spectacular motorcycle stunts in motion pictures of the seventies.

Both behind-the-scenes featurettes are included on Arrow Films’ blu-ray release of ROLLERBALL, available in the UK from 23 March.

Earlier this month, Robert Fischer talked to director/writer Volker Schlöndorff about his Brecht adaptation BAAL, filmed in 1969 for German television. After its initial airing in January 1970, BAAL was banned for 44 years by the Brecht estate and could not be seen until its revival — in a digitally restored version — at the Berlin film festival a year ago. Fischer’s 46-minute interview film with the director is called THE POET AND THE FILMMAKER and covers every phase in the making of BAAL, with special emphasis on Schlöndorff’s casting of fellow director Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the title role.

In a second video piece on BAAL, Fassbinder’s Danish friend and biographer Christian Braad Thomsen (whose own new documentary, FASSBINDER: TO LOVE WITHOUT DEMANDS, premiered this month at the Berlin film festival) talks about the strange link between Brecht and Fassbinder. It’s called SENSE AND REASON and is 10 minutes long. Both documentaries will be featured on Paris-based Carlotta Film’s DVD release of BAAL on May 6.

At Fiction Factory, postproduction has begun on new documentaries with director Ang Lee, writer-producer Jamnes Schamus and actor Mitchell Lichtenstein on the award-winning THE WEDDING BANQUET (1993) and other films in Lee’s »Father Knows Best« trilogy. The interviews were conducted and filmed by Robert Fischer two weeks ago in Manhattan and will be available in early 2015.

Ang Lee

James Schamus

Mitchell Lichtenstein

On December 1, Dalton Trumbo’s only film as a director, JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN, had its international blu-ray premiere in France. A week later, on December 9, Alejandro Amenábar’s first feature film TESIS was published on blu-ray in the USA. Both special editions include a Fiction Factory documentary as their main bonus feature: The box set (limited collector’s edition) of JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN has DALTON TRUMBO: REBEL IN HOLLYWOOD, and TESIS has TOUCHING DEATH: ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR ON TESIS.

At Fiction Factory, post-production has just finished on the 72-minute documentary LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS: DON SIEGEL AND THE MAKING OF »CHARLEY VARRICK«. Siegel’s classic crime thriller, made in 1972 in the wake of the immensely successful DIRTY HARRY, stars Walter Matthau in what is probably the actor’s finest dramatic role, airshow pilot turned crop duster turned bank robber turned mob target Charley Varrick. Taking the viewer back to the time of the shooting of this cult item are Siegel’s son, Kristoffer Tabori, actors Andy Robinson and Jacqueline Scott, stunt driver and actor Craig R. Baxley, composer Lalo Schifrin, and Howard A. Rodman, whose father co-wrote the screenplay. LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS, directed by Robert Fischer, was shot last August in Los Angeles and will first be available as a bonus feature on Koch Media Germany’s blu-ray release of CHARLEY VARRICK, scheduled for early 2015. Other territories will hopefully follow.

Die Fiction-Factory-Produktion AUF EIGENEN SCHWINGEN, ein Film von Robert Fischer über den visionären deutsch-britischen Künstler Sir Hubert von Herkomer, ist am Samstag, 20.9., im Rahmen der langen Landsberger Kunstnacht mit dem Ellinor-Holland-Preis ausgezeichnet worden. Acht Künstler aus Malerei, Literatur, Architektur, Theater und Film waren nominiert. Aus der Jury-Begründung: »Auf eigenen Schwingen — schon der Titel versprüht Dynamik und Vibration. Es ist eine raffinierte, spannende Filmbiografie. In jedem der zwölf Kapitel kommen Herkomer-Experten aus Landsberg und England zu Wort, die das Schaffen und das private Leben des Universalgenies lebendig werden lassen. Der Zuschauer erlebt Herkomer als Maler, Musiker, Theater- und Filmemacher. Eine grandiose Idee.”

Ellinor-Holland-Preisträger Robert Fischer (rechts) mit dem stellvertretenden Chefredakteur der Augsburger Allgemeinen, Jürgen Marks (Foto: Thorsten Jordan)

Die Fiction-Factory-Produktion SWAN SONG: THE STORY OF BILLY WILDER’S »FEDORA« (Regie: Robert Fischer) wird am 26. September um 21 Uhr und am 12. Oktober um 20:30 Uhr im Zeughauskino Berlin (Unter den Linden 2) im Rahmen des Festivals DOKU.ARTS gezeigt. Nach der Vorführung am 26. September gibt es ein Gespräch zwischen Robert Fischer und Hans Helmut Prinzler. Weitere Informationen: DOKU.ARTS

Fiction Factory’s next feature-length documentary will be devoted to a rare film by a legendary director: RETURN TO BEETHOVEN STREET: SAM FULLER IN GERMANY will cover the making of Fuller’s 1972 crime caper DEAD PIGEON ON BEETHOVEN STREET from script to screen. The recently rediscovered director’s cut of DEAD PIGEON (running time: 123 minutes) prompted the production of this in-depth documentary, which will feature new interviews with star Christa Lang, supporting actors Eric P. Caspar and Hans C. Blumenberg, executive producer Günter Rohrbach, fellow directors Wim Wenders and Dominik Graf (both ardent DEAD PIGEON fans), composer Irmin Schmidt (CAN), Fuller’s daughter Samantha, and film scholars Janet Bergstrom and Bill Krohn. RETURN TO BEETHOVEN STREET, produced and directed by Robert Fischer, will be ready for delivery in early 2015.

Production just ended on Fiction Factory’s latest documentary, PERSPECTIVES ON »OTHELLO«: JOSEPH McBRIDE ON ORSON WELLES. In early  July, Welles scholar McBride was interviewed  for this 45-minute documentary by Robert Fischer in Berlin. In it, McBride talks about Welles and Shakespeare, the tumultuous production and the different versions of OTHELLO, and how to place this stylistically dazzling work of art within Welles’ oeuvre. PERSPECTIVES ON »OTHELLO« will first be  published in France on Carlotta Films’ DVD and blu-ray of OTHELLO, due out on November 5.

The latest Fiction Factory production is TOUCHING DEATH, a 40-minute documentary in which acclaimed Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (THE OTHERS, THE SEA INSIDE) discusses his debut feature, TESIS (1996). Amenábar was interviewed last January in his Madrid home by Robert Fischer. TOUCHING DEATH will be included as a special feature on Paris-based Carlotta Films’ DVD and blu-ray release of the restored TESIS on 25 June.