This time last year, Timo Vuorensola promised us "Hitler riding a dinosaur in the centre of the Earth" in his forthcoming Iron Sky sequel The Coming Race. Twelve months later he's already blown his money shot in this promo, just unveiled at Helsinki's Night Visions festival and the American Film Market. "Yeah, but that's a money shot worth blowing," Vuorensola grins.
Not intended to be part of the film itself, the promo serves as a bridge between the end of Iron Sky and the start of the new movie, set 20 years later.
Following a holocaust, "All that’s left of humanity survives in the Moon Fortress," Vuorensola explained to Empire last week. "It’s the survival of mankind: a small group of ex-Nazis, kids, old women... basically anyone who didn't leave for the war, plus those who were rich enough to get off Earth with their private space shuttle tickets. They created a society where hyper-capitalism is like a religion, but the Moon by now is in shit shape, it’s falling apart and mankind is wondering what it’s going to do. Then a certain opportunity presents itself and a journey into the Hollow Earth begins..."
Tom Green will play "a priest of the Church of Steve Jobs", alongside returning stars Udo Kier and Julia Dietze. But it sounds like the real stars this time will be greener and scalier...
It's very hard to go beyond Nazis on the Moon as a concept," the director deadpans, "but when I started to work on Iron Sky 2 I knew from very early on that I wanted to do something with an army of dinosaurs. Iron Sky was very inorganic: dead objects in space, and metal. I wanted Iron Sky 2 to be more organic, with an enemy that was a more organic creature. It's a very simple adventure film at heart. This is my Jurassic Park / Indiana Jones love affair!"
The screenplay this time is by the up-and-coming Dalan Musson, from Vuorensola's original story. Germany's Pixomondo (Game Of Thrones, Oblivion) are working on the impressive-looking FX. And following another round of crowd-funding, Iron Sky: The Coming Race is expected to shoot in Berlin next summer for a release sometime in 2016.
Of the developing TV series Vuorensola says he's still waiting for the pieces to fall into place, "so I don't have anything new or intelligent to tell you". But to follow that - which he'll partially but not solely direct - he's already thinking even further ahead to Iron Sky 3. "Once I'm done with this I'll write that, and then I'll have my first science-fiction trilogy. Which is nice!"
He couldn't have picked a more appropriate day to announce it...