Thread by @TrevyLimited

1/ Iron Sky case-the truth! (In summary)
I worked on Iron Sky as a Senior Modeller, Modelling Supervisor, Technical Director and Animator. I made loads of stuff including whole scenes & led a team of modellers..but I was unemployed for most of the production! Yep that's right!!

2/ After Iron Sky was released in 2012 the production company formed a new company Troll VFX. They paid me minimum wage.
I found out everyone else (Finns) were getting paid more AND there were plans for Iron Sky 2. I'm from UK.

3/ I pointed out to producers that I still owned all the IPR for my work on Iron Sky and asked for a salary review.....I was immediately sacked! They were trying to steal my work and Troll VFX owner had already made a €200K deal for my IPR.

4/ My work had already been sold to a games company in Poland to make the game Iron Sky Invasion. I was bemused by it all. The games company were even sending me messages to ask for help with the files.... I told them I was taking legal action!

5/ I was an ERTO union member. They sued Troll VFX for discrimination & unfair dismissal. Then things got crazy. Troll VFX claimed I wasn't a 3D artist in court and had never worked on Iron Sky. Even getting their friends & my work mates to testify I couldn't do 3D animation.

6/ Similar to Margret Keane (Big Eyes case), I had to demonstrate to the judge I could do 3D animation work using my Iron Sky work. The judge believed me and got very angry with Troll VFX. I won the case and had all my Iron sky work back....Troll VFX appealed. It got crazier.

7/ Iron Sky Universe was formed and plans continued to use my work for “equity crowdfunding” offering shares in the firm to members of the public. Pixomondo (Thilo Ewers VFX supervisor) were on board to do VFX. Deals were made with NBC Universal.

8/ Iron Sky Universe were on a roll. Budget 15-20m. Getting funding from Finland's film fund as well as German film funding through Pixomondo. There were plans for a whole franchise including games & TV series. Then Chinese producers turned up wanting to make a 3rd film!

9/ The budget for the Chinese film was 25m. Finnish Chinese production collaborations were being talked about for other projects. 3M came from a Belgian tax shelter and IS 2 began filming at AED Studios.

10/ However, the producers didn't actually own the rights to make any franchise. I had won my case against Troll VFX and had all the 3D artwork. I contacted Pixomondo and told them this. Same with NBC Universal and the Chinese producers. The "chain of title" was broken.

11/ All production plans were going to collapse If I owned IPR. 50Million in deals were on the table but couldn't be finalised if I still held the IPR to all the 3D work. It was all fraud. There couldn't be distribution without a "chain of title". Investors would lose money!!

12/ A 'new court trial' was allowed to go ahead at Turku Appeals Court (Old Academy Building) for Troll VFX to again claim I had never worked on Iron Sky! Timo Vuorensola (director) gave evidence from China by phone saying I hadn't worked on Iron Sky. The verdict got delayed...

13/ I was going to use the money from this case for the © case.
Court reduced money I was awarded from the first case!...then, same court venue (Old Academy Building) was used to film Iron Sky (Chinese film). Same month. Council got 200K from film fund.

turku.fi/en/news/2018-0…

14/ Then Troll VFX changed their company to Troll Productions. This allowed them to escape having to pay me damages. I eventually got 15k from some kind of court insurance thing.

15/ Iron Sky Universe kept rolling forwards raising money. I was unclear what to do. Also, no lawyer in Finland wanted to help me. One lawyer even got aggressive with me telling me to drop the © case. I contacted police as there was clear fraud going on. They weren't interested.

16/ I tried a new tactic. To get Iron Sky Universe to sue me! I made a 3D print of the main Iron Sky UFO & started selling it. Got some friends to help making a VR prototype using Iron Sky Models. Demoed it at various places. ISU were watching, & gathering evidence...mwahahaha!

17/ Eventually, I found some lawyers to help. They understood everything. One was even an ex judge. We got a filing together and news broke in the Hollywood Reporter. Woo-hoo! The shit hit the fan for Iron Sky Producers. They were told by distributors to get things sorted.

18/ Now here is what I was hoping would happen. It was very clear that the chain of title was broken. So all the producers needed to do was make new license agreements with myself and other artists. That would have solved everything! Easy right?

19/ But no. The producers wouldn't see sense. They wanted to sue me too, to claim all the work from me instead of licensing it. I started to feel that the corruption from the Turku case was a sign that the Market Court could also be “influenced”.

20/ Iron Sky Universe also wanted to make their counterclaim and requested that the court prevent me from using my own work in the future. *This was my plan B*. I knew ISU didn't have any contract from me. So they had no evidence of any © transfers to them.

21/ The Market Court did indeed turn in a strange report for the first case. I wrote a detailed account of it here. reddit.com/r/Filmmakers/c…

22/ It meant I couldn't claim damages from Producers. I won the second case as producers simply couldn't prove they owned ANY ©. NBC Universal pulled deals. ISU went bankrupt. Chinese film was shelved. I got the IPR for the 3D work.

23/ ISU did manage to get Iron Sky the Coming Race onto the festival circuit and some fan arranged screening. None of my work appears in it! Pixomondo refused to use it for fear of legal action. Thilo Ewers (Pixomondo) sadly died before it came out.

24/ Financial statements confirm investor's money was being funneled elsewhere. 200K to owner of Troll VFX. True cost of IS2 was 6 million. Chinese film never came out. Producers bankrupt owing 2 million.

I walked away with all my work including IPR to use in future stuff I do.

25/ Finland now has a case where exploited artists can take back their work from nefarious employers and use it all themselves. The DSM©Driective requires a “chain of title” be maintained and equitable remunerations. Know your rights! ;)