Concept Design • Pencil drawing by Ralph Niemeyer
I spent the first year, when the story was still being developed extensively, working alone on the very first designs for the film. The idea was to realize the story in such a way that it was artistically oriented towards the art of the old Dutch painters. As a cinematographic development of what we in the design team had previously done in the hit TV series Simsalagrimm.
Set Design • Pencil drawing by Ralph Niemeyer
For the first year, while the story was still being worked on extensively, I worked alone on the very first designs for the movie. The idea was to realize the story in such a way that it was artistically oriented towards the art of the old Dutch painters. As a cinematographic development of what we in the design team had previously done in the hit TV series Simsalagrimm.
Set Design by Ralph Niemeyer
In the second year, the story was ready and I briefed and managed the set design team for a year.
The STB was finished in the meantime and the dialog was finalized with the voices of Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Michele Gellar and Freddy Prince Jr.
Unfortunately, however, the project ran into troubles at the production company Greenlight Media due to financial turbulence during the financial crisis at the beginning of the 2000s. For political reasons, the entire production team, which consisted of nearly 100 people, was fired in 2002.
At the end, the reorientation of the project and the increase in the budget of several tens of millions of euros in taxpayers' money did not result in a successful film and bombed at the box office.
The movie was released in 2006.
