Scene from Shortcut to Hollywood

Shortcut to Hollywood

John F. (Friedrich) Salinger – whose real name is Johannes Friedrich Selinger – is an insurance salesman from Berlin by profession. Now 35 years old, he realizes that his life hasn’t actually turned out the way he once hoped – that he won’t leave anything of himself to humanity, that the realization of his dream of fame and immortality is getting close. Then he comes up with a brilliant idea. A film which will help him to eternal fame.

His two friends, an ambulance driver who dropped out of medical school and a failed used car salesman, are thrilled. So the three underdogs set off on their documentary road movie to the USA. They are sure of their cause, because even if it will be hard: Hollywood will soon be at their feet!

Singing, they drive off over the endless highways across America, the most incredible idea in film history in their luggage. At first, they are at best smiled at. But when they get serious, when “the bomb bursts,” everything starts moving: The conquest of the new continent begins, and the media machinery gets going. America is suddenly upside down. The venture works out and the three actually become world famous. But the price is high. For John must die in order to live eternally.

Credits

Cast: Jan Henrik Stahlberg, Marcus Mittermeier, Christoph Kottenkamp, Henning Grübel, Marta McGonagle, Alison Findlater-Galinsky, Jerôme Poynton, Jerry Perez, Iris Lohninger

Screenplay: Jan Henrik Stahlberg
Director: Jan Henrik Stahlberg, Marcus Mittermeier
Camera: David Hofmann
Composer: Rainer Oleak
Editing: Sarah Clara Weber
Production design: Peter Naguib
Costume: Juliane Maier
Make up: Jana Filipp
Sound: Florian Niederleithinger
Production management: Dorothee Beinemeier
Co-producer: Robert Hofferer, Andrea Balen, Corina Danckwerts
Producer: Marcos Kantis, Michal Pokorny, Martin Lehwald, Philipp Kreuzer, Matthias Esche, Jan S. Kaiser, Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg
Supporters: The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmförderungsanstalt, German Federal Film Fund, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, MEDIA Program of the European Union, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern
Production year: 2007/2008

Preise
  • Award for the best sound design, Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg Vorpommern
Festivalteilnahmen
  • Berlinale (Panorama)
  • Film Art Festival Mecklenburg Western Pomerania Schwerin
  • Jecheon International Music & Film Festival
  • German Currents L.A.
  • Sao Paulo International Film Festival
  • International Film Festival Molodist Kyiv
  • GI San Francisco
  • Vilnius International Film Festival
Scene from Shortcut to Hollywood
Scene from Shortcut to Hollywood
Scene from Shortcut to Hollywood
Scene from Shortcut to Hollywood