Roger Steinmann

Roger Steinmann
Roger Steinmann, at the Cannes Festival 2015
Born	(1961-11-06) November 6, 1961 (age 62) Zürich, Canton of Zürich, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Occupation(s)	Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter, Entrepreneur
Years active	1969-present
Notable work	Illusion Infinity, Win=Win, PhonY, Die Flutkatastrophe (The Flood Disaster), Die Maschinentiere (The Machine Animals), Die Türe (The Door)
Website	Roger-Steinmann.com

Most notable is his biopic Illusion Infinity (aka Paradise, 2004), starring Dee Wallace, Mickey Rooney, Timothy Bottoms, Barbara Carrera, Martin Kove, Theresa Saldana, and Lilyan Chauvin.

In autumn 2018, the shooting of the international feature film, the farce-comedy PhonY, was interrupted due to the unexpected death of lead actor Burt Reynolds. Since then, the fate of the already to 70% shot farce-comedy became uncertain.

In spring of 2020, Steinmann turned to the theater and created the two-character farce Win=Win. Subsequently, he directed and produced the play; the premiere was held in Zurich on October 7, 2022. On stage were Bodo Krumwiede and Florine Elena Deplazes; off-roles were voiced by Christa Rigozzi, Gilles Tschudi, René Rindlisbacher, Heidi Maria Glössner and Bella Neri.

In 2023, Steinmann has written two new stageplays: The one-lady drama Teufelskreis and its English adaption Ruthless what is based on the 'survival' of Ruth Madoff; and an Agatha Christie-like crime-comedy titled Wenn der Drilling mit der Zwilling.

At the age of 12, Steinman shot his first short film with a Super-8 camera. In the next five years, another 30 films followed. Four of them received awards.

One of the early award-winning films was Die Maschinentiere (The Machine Animals), a 1977-documentary on large-scale animal husbandry in contrast to classic farming.

In Die Flutkatastrophe (The Flood Disaster) Steinmann showed the consequences of a broken dam of a nearby reservoir and the flooding of his hometown Zurich. Along an interview, it was aired on Swiss TV in November 1978, the month Steinmann turned 17.

Progressing Film Ambitions

Still in his teens, Steinmann aimed to execute larger scale feature-projects based on his original screenplays. In 1978/79, he developed the conception Krebs! (Cancer!) about the life-threatening virus in a woman's organism, visualized by a simultaneous life-threat of the organism of an entire city by a Godzilla-like monster-crab. In German language the title "Krebs!" bears the double meaning of Cancer and Crab.

Early Theater activities

Steinmann turned to theater as well; notable are:

1982: Beschti Referenze (aka Buchhalter Noetzli / Bookkeeper Noetzli), Steinmann in his function as producer and director was the first to bring this play by Hans Schubert to the Swiss stage. Four years later, the same play served the popular Swiss folk actor Walter Roderer as was his probably greatest success, on stage as well as in film.

1986: Achtung-Fertig-Los! (aka Nume Theater mit em Sunntigsbsuech / Ready-Steady-Go!), Steinmann producing and writing this unique farce-comedy concepting disguised actors among the real audience. His friend Markus Imthurn was directing, becoming Steinmann's closest artistic collaborator to date.

1988: Schelmereie (Sweet Cheating) at the theater in Oberentfelden, Switzerland: Steinmann directing.

Hollywood

From 1991, Steinmann lived alternatively in Los Angeles. There, he wrote several screenplays on spec, alone but mostly in association, e.g. 'Bum and the Kid' with Scott Steindorff, outlines, e.g. ‘Love of my Life’ with Don Mankiewicz, rewrites, e.g. ‘Project: Metalbeast’.

Feature Film Illusion Infinity (aka Paradise, 2004)

 

Among Steinmann´s several projects, Illusion Infinity (aka Paradise, 2004) caught the eye of casting director Gerald I. Wolff. He was able to engage seven well known Hollywood actors: Dee Wallace, Mickey Rooney, Timothy Bottoms, Barbara Carrera, Martin Kove, Theresa Saldana, and Lilyan Chauvin.

Illusion Infinity was labeled as a biopic; however, it was an original screenplay by Steinmann about the supposed real Las Vegas singer Patricia Paradise (played by Dee Wallace) and her life-long search for a genuine soul-mate, and a home she calls ‘Shangri-La’.

Feature Film Projects ‘The PartyKillers’ and ‘Ladies First’

In 2014, Thai film star Mike Angelo became interested to star in ‘The PartyKillers’, a screwball-comedy about a humble inventor of a magical teddy-bear crashing the engagement party of a toy manufacturer. This screenplay Steinmann wrote back in 1995/98 in collaboration with Rodney Heeringa.

But another concept of a screwball comedy fit Angelo's talent even better: A male singer gaining success only when performing as a woman, attracting both a father and his daughter. After Angelo agreed to star in this dual role, Steinmann originated the 2015-screenplay ‘Ladies First’. Swiss actors Beat Schlatter and Pascal Ulli confirmed their interest to participate, the latter also as co-produce.

Feature Film PhonY

 

Our world caught up with constant (ab-)use of cellphones: What would happen if all cells and computers became unusable? This topic led to the 2016/2018-screenplay PhonY with the unique interactivity between segments in Los Angeles, Switzerland, Australia, Thailand and Canada.

In spring 2018, the filming commenced in Switzerland with Pascal Ulli and Gilles Tschudi; it was followed by the Thai segment with a local cast. The remaining segments with Burt Reynolds, Talia Shire and Barbara Carrera were scheduled in Los Angeles for October 2018. Though, a mere month before, Reynolds untimely passed away, and the production stalled. Golden Globe Award winners Arnold Schwarzenegger and Elke Sommer were set for the reshoot, with Shire still on board. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions once again ruined the shooting scheduled of April 2020. Since then, the fate of the feature film, shot to 70%, has become uncertain.

Stage Production WIN=WIN

 

Due to the cinematic inactivity in spring 2020, Steinmann turned after a hiatus of more than 30 years once again to the theater and created Win=Win, a two-person farce about the 'panic-stricken' distancing - aka 'social distancing' - of two very different neighbors. The stage is set up two-parted, thus the two protagonists' actions is viewed simultaneously.

Casting with Bodo Krumwiede and Florine Elena Deplazes were completed by the end of April 2022, rehearsal began at the end of June and the world premiere of Win=Win took place on October 7, 2022, in Zurich.

In addition to the Swiss production, international actors such as Didi Hallervorden, and, shortly before his death Karl Dall along, for the English adaption, Timothy Bottoms, are interested in a respective national premiere

Further theater activities

In 2020/21, Steinmann actualized his 1986-stage play Achtung-Fertig-Los! anew as Nume Theater mit em Sunnigsbsuech, and in the High German adaption as Nur Theater mit dem Sonntagsbesuch. Notably, he created an entire new development within the second act leading to a new ending of this eleven-character farce-comedy.

From 2021 and completed in 2023, Steinmann created the play Teufelskreis. This semi-biographical one-person-drama is based on the 'survival' of Ruth Madoff, the wife of 50 years of Bernie Madoff, the infamous USD 65 billion Wall Street ponzi fraudster. With her husband in jail for life, Ruth laments about her guilt and fate - after all, both her sons Mark and Andrew had ended their lives in grief over their father's record-breaking crime. This play is in preparation for a world premiere for 2024, either in the German-speaking territories, or in the United States with the English adaption Ruthless.

As well in 2023, Steinmann authored the crime-comedy Wenn der Drilling mit der Zwilling, a humorous, Agatha Christie-styled, Witness for the Prosecution.

1981: Steinmann concluded his education at the Swiss Business School in Zurich.

1983: Steinmann invented an automatic bottle stopper; patented in 1985.

1983: Steinmann prevailed in the German TV-quiz show ‘Alles oder Nichts’ and won DM 10'000.

1984: Steinmann founded the Rotsch AG, a joint-stock company, to market his invention. At that time, he was 22 years old and became the youngest president ever of such an entity in Switzerland. He sold that entity in 1996.

1986: Steinmann started distributing greeting cards, partly of own designing, in Switzerland but as well in Europe and throughout the world. His products were among the most luxurious cards on the market.

1995: Steinmann founded the film production company SUNSET International AG, a joint-stock film production company, among others of the current PhonY.

2022: Steinmann's life in his home of choice Phuket was aired in Europe's largest TV-station RTL in three installments within the popular docu-series Die Alltagskämpfer.

Steinmann speaks eight languages: his original Swiss-German, German, French, English and Spanish, and has basic knowledge in Portuguese, Italian, and Thai.

Film

Theater (selection)

• 1982: Beschti Referenze (aka ‘Buchhalter Noetzli’; comedy; director and producer, premiere in Zurich June 5, 1982)
• 1986-1987: Achtung-Fertig-Los! (farce-comedy; author and producer, premiere in Zurich April 10, 1987)
• 1988: Schelmereie (comedy; director; premiere in Oberentfelden (Kanton Aargau) January 10, 1988)
• 1989: Der Zahnklempner (comedy; author; yet unproduced)
• 1990: Sturmfrei (comedy; author; yet unproduced)
• 2020-2022: WIN=WIN (farce-comedy; author; in German; director and producer; premiere in Zurich 7.10.2022)
• 2021: Nume Theater with em Sunntigsbsuech (aka 'Nur Theater mit dem Sonntagsbesuch'; author actualization of the 1986-farce-comedy, in Swiss German as well adaption in High-German)

• 2023: Teufelskreis (drama; author; production and direction in preparation for 2024)
• 2023: Ruthless (drama; author English adaption from the German original)
• 2023: Wenn der Drilling mit der Zwilling (crime-comedy; author)

Unproduced screenplays (selection)

• Krebs! (1978)
• Serendipity (1991), co-written with/by James Valentine
• Bum and the Kid (1992), co-written with/by Robert Scott Steindorff, story by Steindorff
• Love of my Life (1993), co-written with/by Don Mankiewicz, story by Steinmann/Mario Gmür
• The PartyKillers (1995/2014), story with/by Rodney Heeringa, Markus Imthurn and Sidonia Held (in development)
• Ladies First (2015) (in development)