Interview Jonas Wolcher

Its time for another interview! This time, we had the honor to interview the awesome Swedish director and producer Jonas Wolcher. Jonas was born in Gothenburg, Sweden and grew up in Munka Ljungby, a very very small village outside Ängelholm in southern Sweden. His interest for film began when he watched all kinds of movies & TV series together with his grandfather. Jonas told us about it: "I was only 5-6 years of age but we watched TV-shows such as Kojac, Starsky and Hutch. I found horror movies was something I felt more for than anything else. Especially Frankenstein. He was was this big monster but not as frightened as Dracula. A misunderstood creature with great powers."

We asked him: For the people who don't know you yet, what should they really know about you? "I collect contacts. I don't care what you do. Someday I will contact you if I need to get something done. I run a film studio together with Earnest Serunnya in Uganda. Uganda Action Cinema. I collaborate with streaming services in Indonesia and in Africa. Planning Swedish film festivals abroad. Directs and edits music videos. I have this urge never to give up. I will do it whatever it takes. Stubborn and sometimes too hard working film maker. I love to make movies! It's my life."

Of course we want to know more about Jonas and the movies he has made. In 1992 when he went to a media school:  "I learned the impact of using correct music for a scene. My teacher switched my music for a graduation commercial from pop to a horror theme. In 1999 I began my first attempt to make my first movie but it took me additional three years until my

first short Zombienoid was ready for the film festivals." 

Most people know Jonas Wolcher for Die Zombiejäger, Cannibal Fog and Dragonetti: The Ruthless Contract Killer. We asked Jonas to tell us a bit more about these successful movies: "I wanted to make a sequel to Zombienoid because that movie was quite successful. I tried to make a TV-series between 2002-2003 but my daughter was born in May 2003 and I had to put it away.  The July 6th I started a music video but when the band didn't showed up I had to do something else with the crew and actors that day. That day we shot the first scenes for a movie which come to be my legacy and later on it became this cult classic Swedish trash zombie comedy. It was rewritten by Petter Hörberg and co produced by my friend Magnus Hedquist. So from a music video it went to a short and turned into a full feature. We used all kinds of elements and influences from movies we liked. There hadn't been many Swedish zombie movies made before and therefore we had to invent something completely new and fresh. I see Die Zombiejäger as a film school I went to. It took 3 years to complete. 15 years later the movie is still very popular. Dragonetti was a prequel what happened before Die Zombiejäger. You are following the character Claudio Dragonetti to the abyss of possessed statues, mobs, Spetsnaz in a large amount of extreme violence and action. We used real stunts, explosions, car chases, full body burns and lots of weapons. It took three yeas to make and many were confused when it hit the film festivals in 2010. I wanted to make a Hellraiser Rambo type of movie and the rest of the writers wanted to make a

mob-flick. I guess that's why it was too hard to understand all because we had too many chefs to

make that Dragonetti soup."  What kind of people will love watching Die Zombiejäger?

"Everyone who wants to watch a movie you do not have to think while watching."

Let's talk a little bit more about you! We were wondering, how did you decide you wanted to be working in the film industry? "I've always known from the beginning this is where I fit." And can you tell us about your best memory on set? 

"When we did a love scene in Cannibal Fog. In order to make the actors and actresses feeling

more comfortable the rest of the crew including me shot the scene only in our underwear, laugh.

We had the soundguy, camera man, scripta and me half naked. The scene turned out to be very

authentic and it worked out well." That's a great story! Talking about laughing, how would you describe your sense of humor? "Dark and witty. The Cannibal Fog was very dark but it had it's moment."

Our tagline is #Excitedisanunderstatement What are you excited about? "I begin a project very unknown and small. It always turns out to be very big. I'm thrilled every time it happens. We know you also make art. Can you tell us about your art?

#fakeskinart was the name of several objects I made them look like they were made by human

skin. The most famous was the alien which was made of real animal spine covered with

latex. Art that not will last forever. I've also made paintings on the white backside of glossy

posters. When the paint begins to crack a new piece of art reveals. I've always loved the trashy

and the broken stuff. The ugly attracts me more than the perfect.

As you all know, we at Conmose love visiting comic cons, horror cons, scifi cons and way more! And of course we had to Jonas about conventions as well! 

We saw you visit horror cons. What do like about it? "Meeting people from all over the world is something extra. Fans, new or old doesn't matter. A smile, a hug, selfie, autograph. I give you something extra each time you visit me at my booth." 

And who would you like to meet (actors or actresses, directors, producers) yourself? Dario Argento, Paul Verhoven, William Friedkin and Jim Cameron.

Which comic cons have you attended already? "I've not attend to any Comic Cons yet, Only film festivals and Horror cons and Scifi cons.For this year, I'm still in the planning. I'm going to House of Horrors in Oberhausen, Germany."

What's your best comic con memory?

When I met Yan Birch. Our pieces of the puzzle just fell to the right spot. We are now very good

friends and he's one of the co-producers in The Dead Man's Mound.

We know we have asked so many questions already, but ofcourse we also want to know more about future projects so we asked Jonas to tell us about his plans: "I'm planning to produce a studio picture Nikita Ivanenko's viking saga “The Dead Man's Mound” directed by Chandradeep Das, which is in the pre-production. An authentic historical movie with

great crew and actors all over the world. Everything you see in the movie is for real. It's made by

craftsmen from actual findings in Scandinavia. It's a pretty big production with a lot of crew. We want to shoot the movie in late 2019 on locations in Sweden and in Iceland. At the moment we are looking for more investors. The story is co-written by Victoria Tarazi who's been working a lot with Michael Bay in the 90s. Among of the actors are Yan Birch, Matthias Hues, Harley Wallen, Ida Karolin Johansson and Jason Trost. The music will be composed by Thomas Rydell and the award winning Marco Werba together with the All-Star rockband Bleckhorn. The second unit is run by Paul Weston and Lars Lundgren. Both are well known in the stunt world in Hollywood. I have searched for the best people I can find in the industry who fit our budget. Please follow our journey on our Instagram page."  These are great new projects! We're looking forward to the results and will definitely keep an eye on the Instagram page.  What kind of movies would you still like to make? "A big scifi blockbuster. I have been contacted one of the largest in scifi-genre who wrote some of the coolest scifi pictures for a collaboration. Let's see how it turns out."

We would like to thank Jonas for this interview. Thank you so much for your time and effort. It was great to speak to you and learn about your movies and plans. We're looking forward to seeing your new projects. To end this article,  Jonas has a tip for all of you who want to get into film making: "Yes. Do it. Do it. Do it. Never give up and always look for more contacts. Don't forget to listen to people around you who are more experienced than you and learn from them."

Interested in seeing Jonas Wolchers work? You can get it in different stores. On Teeb TV. Attention.vt www.indienuts.com Soon on Amazon. 

Thank you!!