The new Omerzu project is a drama based on a real story. The duo are also developing an ambitious musical/comedy based on the story of the seal who escaped from Prague zoo during the 2002 flood.
Olmo Omerzu’s Family Film will be a Czech-Croatian-Slovak-French coproduction and it will participate at Connecting Cottbus in 8 and 9 November 2012. The film is produced by Endorfilm in coproduction with the Slovenian Ars Media (www.arsmedia.si), the Croatian Studio Dim (www.dim.hr), the Slovak Punkchart Films and the French Rouge International (www.rouge-international.com).
Jiři Konečný told FNE that they closed the development financing with a MEDIA development grant, a Slovenian development grant and Czech Fund support for development.The budget is 1.4m EUR.
Shooting is set to start in October 2013 and is planned to last for approximately 40 days. Shooting will be in Prague and in Croatia. The film is expected to be finished by September 2014.
Endorfilm is also developing Gaston (www.gaston-film.cz), a feature based on the real story of the seal who managed to swim 300km on Vltava and Elba during the flood in Prague in 2002, and died close to Dresden. Martin Dušek wrote the script and he will also direct.
For this project Endorfilm launched the first-ever Czech crowd financing to raise the 800,000 CZK nedeed for developing this „tricky production”, with an actor dressed as a seal, choreography, CGI and a tone which will be „very ironical but at the same time mainstream oriented”, Jiři Konečný told FNE. The budget is 1.5m EUR. Coproducers are needed. Shooting might be at the end of 2014-beginning of 2015.
Endorfilm is also in preparation with Goat/Koza, a Slovak (Sentimental Film, www.sentimentalfilm.com)/Czech and possibly German coproduction, the first feature directed by the documentary filmmaker Ivan Ostrochovský . He co-wrote the script together with the established Slovak scriptwriter Marek Leščák.
Based on the real story of Peter Baláž, nicknamed Koza (Goat), a boxer who participated the Olympics in Atlanta 1995 and now, as a retired sportsman, has to do a final tour for money, the film is starring the boxer itself and is planned to start shooting in January-February 2013. The budget is 800,000 EUR. The financing should be finalised in a couple of months.
For Endorfilm, the minority coproducer of Made in Ash (www.madeinash.com), the Slovak contender for the Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film category, the future looks promising. "We established a network of partners in other countries and I think now it’s the time to also boost the quality of our work”, said Konečný.
Endorfilm is also minority coproducer on Zero, the new film of the Hungarian director Gyula Nemes and has three feature documentaries in postproduction: Mythmaking (Mýtus Šedé) by Jan Gogola, The Story Of Mr. Love (Pan Láska navazuje spojení) by Dagmar Smržová, and Eugenic Minds (Eugéniové) by Pavel Štingl.
