BIO

My filmmaking career began at the UT Austin and UT Dallas, where I received my BA in Theater with a minor in Philosophy. I then moved to New York City to study film at NYU. Parallel to university, I was accepted into the renowned talent factory, the Actors Studio in NYC, with the Playwright/ Directors Unit, where I studied under Elia Kazan (‘East of Eden‘, ‘On the Waterfront‘) and Arthur Penn (‘Bonnie & Clyde‘). I graduated from NYU with a short film, HEY JOEY.

 

I rewrote the script for HEY JOEY to feature length and called the story LITTLE NOISES from then on. For the film, I got Crispin Glover (‘Back to the Future‘) and Tatum O'Neal (Oscar winner in ‘Paper Moon’) to star, as well as Los Angeles production company Monument Pictures. We made the film and in the following year, LITTLE NOISES premiered in the main competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

 

Thereafter, I started writing screenplays including SOUTH OF HOPE STREET, THE RED WEATHER, HOW TO BA AN AMERICAN, THE UNRAVELING, THE NINTH CLOUD, and FACES ON MARS. I was also drawn back to the theatre. I wrote several plays and directed the performances of CRITICAL MASS at the Actors Studio, NYC starring Michael Imperioli (‘The Sopranos‘),  PLAYGROUND SOUNDS at Circle Rep, NYC, HOW SOON IS NOW at One Dream Theatre, NYC,  WAKE UP RUNNING at the Gate Theater and Riverside Studio (both London), and FACES ON MARS at the Fountain Head Theatre, Los Angeles.

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Inspired by the Dogma 95 movement and the digital revolution in film, I decided in 1998 to set up my own project with actors from the Los Angeles theater scene. In the year I was able to secure the financing and produce my feature film FACES ON MARS. Shortly after 911, I moved to Zurich with my Swiss partner, which became my adopted home. FACES ON MARS premiered in the feature film category at the Swiss Solothurn Film Festival 2003. In Switzerland I wrote also two more screenplays, the comedy PLEASE DON'T BE LONG and the period piece on composer Erik Satie THE VELVET GENTLEMAN.

 

In 2005 I decided to found the production company WARD9 Productions with Marc Holthuizen. Project No.1 with WARD9  was THE NINTH CLOUD. First I shot a short film in Paris based on this script starring Julia Jentsch (‘Sophie Scholl‘).  I was next able to win Jean-Hugues Anglade (‘Betty Blue‘) and Michael Madsen (‘Thelma & Louise‘) for the feature film screenplay. I shot it in Budapest and London and premiered THE NINTH CLOUD at the 2014 Raindance Film Festival (London). The film was also screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival (CN), La Femme Film Festival (Los Angeles) and Glasgow Film Festival (Scotland) to very good reviews.

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After that I started to work on SOUTH OF HOPE STREET. The film was shot in Switzerland and I was able to hire the actors Judd Nelson (‘The Breakfast Club‘) and William Baldwin (‘Backdraft‘), and editor Patricia Rommel (‘The Lives of Others‘). After a complex post-production with many visual effects and a lush score, I finished the film and will premiere it on April 18, at the Regency Bruin Theatre in Los Angeles, California.