Dimensia (film)

***Dimensia*** is an 2016 multinational live-action science-fiction/fantasy action adventure film directed by Jamie Shertick, and co-directed by Jake Sanford.

## Plot

Jamie Shertick describes it as "like a very important homework assignment." Jake Sanford said about it being like a homework assignment in a interview "Make a movie about a retired Polish-born space marshal and his children, who are called into to save the multiverse, at one point suddenly end up in another dimension full of fairies, ogres and stuff, fight an evil monster played by Ben of the Oddity Archive web series, include appearances by a lot of talent and people... and make a plausible big budget film."

## Production

The film was written under the working title of "Morons in Space", and was originally intended as a comedy film, however it became a serious film at the last second. The revamped script was finished by Jamie Shertick and Jake Sanford in less than a hour one evening.

The film was mainly produced by Jamie Shertick Productions, along with Greenyworld Studios and Orion Pictures. On December 24, 2015, GreenyWorld Studios received funding, production support, and help from many companies, including: Eurimages Fund of the Council of Europe EU Media Plus Program, Media Programme of the European Community, Yleisradio, Conseil Général de la Charente, Conseil Régional de Poitou Charentes, Piste Rouge, BBC Worldwide, Bord Scannán na hÉireann, Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, The Centre for Cinema and Audiovisual, Promimage, Wallimage, Tax Sheltering Invest the Tax Shelter Productions, Belgacom TV, Kinepolis Multi, Centre National de la Cinematographie, Danish Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute, ZDF, Orange Studio, Proyecto desarrollado en el II laboratorio de guionistas and Annapurna Pictures, The Government of Catalonia, Rhombus Media, Film Nova Scotia, Canadian Film or Video Television Tax Credit, Quebec SODEC, Telefilm Canada, Nordic Film og TV Fond, Ardmore Sound, Ontario Film & TV Tax Credit, Svensk Filmindustri, Telepool/Moviepool/Europool, TV2 Danmark, Filmförderungsanstalt, Film Fund Hamburg, Universum Film GmbH, Copyright Promotions Licensing Group, National Film Archive, Suomen Elokuvasäätiö, TVE, The Ministry of Culture (Brazil), Ancine, Catalan Finance Institute (ICF), Metrodome Distribution, VPRO, Angel Films, SVT, DR, ARD (through WDR), Arte, Canal+, Cine+, Catalan Film & TV, Davis-Films, Ulysses Filmproduktion GmbH, TFM Distribution, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Magic Light Pictures, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Studio Babelsberg, 4½ Film, Corus Entertainment (through YTV), Dutch Film Fund, Filmstiftung NRW, Cobo Funds, Nordisk Film, Fjedable Films A/S, Invicta Capital, Tröllhätän Film, Liberator Productions, Pinewood Studios, Edith Film Oy, Future Film, Slot Machine (Zentropa Entertainment), Sigma Films, and Isabella Films B.V.

Yleisradio, Arte, TV2 and DR both (Denmark), YTV, SVT, VPRO and TVE obtained the rights to broadcast the film exclusively on their channels in Finland, France, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain.

Filming began on December 27, 2015, and ended on February 7, 2016. Filming began with exterior and interior scenes at Fallingwater in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 43 miles (69 km) southeast of Pittsburgh.

Some scenes were filmed at Studio Babelsberg, Raleigh Studios, Red Studios Hollywood, EUE Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States; Nickelodeon on Sunset, the Jim Henson Company Lot, New England Studios, Sun Center Studios, Jake Sanford's usual filming spot

*Main article(s): Supply Depot (Toronto)*, Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios, Sunset Gower Studios, the Atlantic Studios Cooperative, Nordisk Film, Film City in Mumbai, India; Pinewood Studios, some parts of Mumbai, some parts of Abu Dhabi, and some parts of Barcelona. Invicta Capital invested into the film last time, when filming started in Studio Babelsberg, while Catalan Film & TV did it after the filming at Barcelona (a capital of Catalonia) was finished.
Filming of the scenes of the crime syndicate's building were shot in an abandoned Toys "R" Us store at the

*Main article(s): Euclid Square Mall* in Euclid, Ohio, United States, and in an abandoned Lowes store at 3061 Godwin Blvd in Suffolk, Virginia, United States, though asbestos removal and building support work had to be done first before shooting.
A behind the scenes video revealed that a scene where Anderson and his children stop by a Subway (yes, there was minor product placement for Target, Subway, Mancino's (a small 80-store chain of pizza restaurants in Indiana), Crystal Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Surge, Pibb Xtra, and Five Guys in the film) was filmed at a Subway on 73 Mill Plain Road in Danbury, Connecticut, United States. The scenes with the Target and Mancino's were filmed at Target and Target Australia stores in Leominster, Massachusetts, United States and within the Northgate Shopping Centre, Glenorchy, a northern suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, while the Mancino's scene was shot at the Mancino's at 1025 W Coliseum Blvd in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, according to Jake Sanford in a blog post.

Scenes in a rural universe were filmed in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, United States, with scenes in the "Adam Darren Jones' Rural Warehouse" department store being filmed in an abandoned old building formerly used as a two-story

*Main article(s): Ames (store)* store.
On January 27, 2016, an incident occurred during filming. The film crew was transported 4 hours from Sun Center Studios in Chester Township in the US state of Pennsylvania to PRR Port Perry Bridge in North Versailles Township and Duquesne, Pennsylvania. Norfolk Southern had approved of the film production using the bridge, and had halted all rail traffic over the bridge. The script called for an battle with Anderson's crew and one of Zorgtron's battle battalions to fight on the bridge, which would then explode via advanced computer graphics, aided by launches of fireworks placed on the sides of the bridge. During one take, a Norfolk Southern military equipment train loaded with tanks and other vehicles of war approached the bridge at over 39 mph, giving the crew less than 2 minutes to evacuate the cast and crew from the filming location, a substantial way out onto the trestle. The only escape route was toward the oncoming train. Video taken by a railfan and by a GoPro camera placed by Fireworks by Grucci, the pyrotechnics firm for the film, shows the crew and actors scrambling and quickly taking equipment off the bridge. They failed to remove the battle battalion's lava launchers before the braking train rolled through, and many of the crew were trapped out on the trestle. The train struck and shattered the launchers, sending molten plastic and sharp parts toward crew members. Fragments struck a firework, causing it explode and injure a crew member. 7 crew members were rushed to the hospital with minor injuries, and the scene had to be retaken.

## Visual Effects

Visual effects and CGI animation have been created by Lucasfilm-owned Industrial Light & Magic, Scanline VFX, Pixomondo, Troll VFX, Base FX, Ghost VFX A/S, Rodeo FX, Lola Visual Effects, LLC, Crafty Apes, RISE Visual Effects Studios, Digital Domain, Black Ginger VFX, Moving Picture Company (MPC), Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI), Rhythm & Hues Studios, BUF Compagnie and Iloura with practical effects and animatronics done by Jim Henson's Creature Shop and Stainton Enterprises-owned Greenyworld Creative Engineering, 3D cyber-scanning done by Plowman Craven & Associates, pre-visualization done by Halon Entertainment, animatronic suits done by the Landmark Entertainment Group, The All Effects Company, OnlyDinosaurs Science & Technology Company Limited, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop, stereoscopic 3D conversion by Stereo D, and motion capture done by Centroid Motion Capture.

A distribution deal with Gramercy Pictures was abruptly rejected by Gramercy due to scheduling conflicts with another GreenyWorld Studios-produced film, and Dimensia's new US and Canada distributor was announced to be the revived Orion Pictures.

The film was shot using vintage 8mm film cameras using StaintonScope, a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 8mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Stainton Enterprises. The film was edited on a Atlas-Warner Super Screen 8mm Editor. Digital conversion was done by Film is Dead Conversion Services.

The film premiered at the

*Main article(s): Grauman's Chinese Theatre* at the start of Spring 2016. Premieres were also held in Paris, London, Seoul, Toronto, Vancouver, and New York City.
On February 13, 2016, Jake Sanford posted a photo to Facebook of the MPAA's rating for the film, PG. The caption reads "We were boosting for a PG-13 rating, but we got bumped up to NC-17 because of the inclusion of Jennifer's werewolf form's wolf genitalia. So we reshot scenes and had her werewolf form wear shorts after she transformed, which bumped the rating to what we wanted, PG-13. Then we were forced to get rid of the death scenes and made it so they faded away "to a specially-created new dimension", which bumped it to G. Then we snuck in multiple uses of the word "damn", which bumped it to PG. That's why we ended up receiving said rating."

## Cast and Crew

On December 25, 2015, it was announced

*Main article(s): Cüneyt Arkın* and
*Main article(s): Grey DeLisle* were expected to have roles in the film. Later that day, it was announced Kristian Michaels would be working with her brother AA Michaels on the film.
The next day, it was announced

*Main article(s): John Steiner* would be making a cameo as a "space officer", and that Ben Minnotte would be appearing as the space lord Zorgtron. Also it was announced that Mexican journalists Jesús López Viejo and Ramiro Gómez, who appeared in small parts in
*Main article(s): El Mariachi''*, would appear in major parts, as El Malhechor, the leader of a multiverse crime syndicate (played by Jesus), and Jake, a crewmember on Anderson's spaceship who uses an always slipping Brookyln accent (played by Ramiro).
On December 29, 2015, it was revealed Cüneyt Arkın and Grey DeLisle would be playing Cüneyt, a crewmember on Anderson's spaceship and Emily, one of Anderson's children respectively. It was also revealed

*Main article(s): Melissa Altro* would be voicing Rattle, a talking teddy bear who is a 12" Blue Puffs Teddy Bear Lovey & Baby Rattle being held up by a obviously visible human hand, in the style of the "special effects" of B-movies like
*Main article(s): The Mighty Gorga''*.
On December 30, 2015, two new characters were revealed: Jennifer (played by

*Main article(s): Bryn McAuley*), and her boyfriend Jason (played by
*Main article(s): Josh Pais*), Jennifer having the curse of lycanthropy with an even more awkward twist - changing her into a MALE werewolf every full moon, who end up on Anderson's spaceship. Also revealed was Megabot (suit acted by professional wrestler
*Main article(s): Triple H*, voiced by
*Main article(s): Conchita Wurst* talking into a vocoder owned by Kraftwerk), Anderson's personal robot. Also appearing will be
*Main article(s): Peter Weller*, Joel Kinnaman, Scott Wilson (the original voice of Chuck E. Cheese),
*Main article(s): James A. Moorer* (the creator of the THX deep note, as Anderson's youngest brother John, a minor character), and many others.
The computer of Anderson's spaceship, Robo, is voiced by AA Michaels who records his lines in Audacity and edits them using the vocoder effect. Computer effects are also used to edit some characters' voices.

It was announced by Robert Stainton that all money generated from the box office runs of Dimensia and Jamie Shertick's upcoming film Raggedy Ann would be donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and Autism Speaks.

## Characters

Characters include Anderson Kowalczyk, a recently-retired Polish-born space marshal who is called back into action to save the multiverse, who will be played by

*Main article(s): Robert Conrad*, and his children, Jonathan (played by
*Main article(s): Shaun Majumder*), Timothy (played by
*Main article(s): Oded Menashe*), and Emily (played by
*Main article(s): Grey DeLisle*). Also revealed is Cüneyt, a Turkish crewmember on Anderson's spaceship (played by his namesake
*Main article(s): Cüneyt Arkın*), Zorgtron, an evil space lord of which half of his body is in a trash can-without lid-like object (played by Ben Minnotte), El Malhechor, the leader of a multiverse crime syndicate (played by Jesús López Viejo), Jake, a crewmember on Anderson's spaceship who comes from Brooklyn (played by Ramiro Gómez), and Rattle, a talking teddy bear who is a 12" Blue Puffs Teddy Bear Lovey & Baby Rattle being held up by a obviously visible human hand, in the style of the "special effects" of B-movies (voiced by
*Main article(s): Melissa Altro*, operated by Audel LaRoque).

## Soundtracks

The soundtrack was released on Frontiers Records in North America, South America, Australia, Italy, and New Zealand, and on Elektra Records in the United Kingdom, Europe (except Italy), and Asia. The score album was released on Varèse Sarabande in North America, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, on Frontiers Records in Italy, and on Elektra Records in the United Kingdom, Europe (except Italy), and Asia. The remix album was released on  L.I.E.S. Records in North America, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, on Frontiers Records in Italy, and on Elektra Records in the United Kingdom, Europe (except Italy), and Asia.

### Track Listing (Soundtrack)

1. Dimensia - Kazoo Sandwich
2. Life and Love - Barbra Streisand and Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh
3. Space Happenings - WN, with rap by Marko Kalfa

## Release

Dimensia was released on March 20, 2016, and grossed $80.2 million at the box office, receiving rave reviews from critics. It was Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes with a 79% score.

As a result of the success, Jamie Shertick and Jake Sanford announced that a sequel, Dimensia 2: The Job, had begun production. A new character is set to be introduced in *The Job*, Mina, Anderson's younger daughter, played by Estonian freestyle skier Kelly Sildaru.

## Merchandising

McFarlane Toys produced action figures, which sold out repeatedly nationwide. Toys "R" Us requested 10,000,000 figures from McFarlane to sell in their stores, the most ever ordered by the chain.

A live tour was announced by AEG Live and Singularity Entertainment, called Dimensia: The Creatures are Coming!, featuring most of the film's original cast and featuring musical performances.