Lisa Films: IFD European Connection

The wonderful action film magazine Impact offered us a really nice interview with Joseph Lai on its issue on Octber 2000 That interview can be read on this blog in two different ways: as it was published & also in its"uncut" version kindly offered by the author Mike Leeder.

Joseph Lai said in the interview he & his company were avaliable for co-productions since this formula has been always very profitable & less risky. We just have to remember he co-production system offered us real masterpieces in european cinematographies during the 50's , 60's & 70's. Each production company don't take so many risks when they invest their money in a film & the benefits from the different international markets ensures the investment. For expample Spanish & italian co-productions gave us the very best Spaguetti Western & horror movies ever done, French & german coproductions let us see the most exciting erotic movies in the same period. The most important thing is those movies are still giving benefits to their producers dued to the revivals & the fandom. So, We have to accept Joseph Lai was totally right when he said he was opened to do co-productions.

Lisa Films, an Austria based film company that co-producced all kind of movies during the golden age of european co-productions was perfect for this matter.
Click this link to visit its official website
http://www.lisafilm.at/lisafilm/liland/sitepath/%2C/template/Welcome.vm

They have all its catalog movie by movie with technical details, from the ones Lisa Film has produced to the co-productions. We can see all time favourites like the Spaguetti Western Sartana to Bud Spencer's Banana Joe or even the erotic thriller shot in Hong Kong Vanessa. And YESSSSSS, I found Royal Destiny under its german title IM FADENKREUZ DES BÖSEN. The result of this search just confirm what Big commented on the previous post: Royal Destiny was started in 1995 & it was probably unfinished while on production with Lisa Films & IFD and then Joseph Lai used vault material to finish the movie. Anyway, after checking the trailer, it seems Royal Destiny is a great movie from IFD. Raymund Harmstorf looks like a clon of Richard Harrison & the action scenes from Tsui Po Wah are superb.

I don't know in which way Lisa Film co-produced War city 5: Law of honor since there is nothing on the movie we can tell has something to do with the germans or austrians. On the other hand Royal Destiny was starred by some famous German actors like Raymond Harmstorf, a very popular face since he played the villain in some Bud Spencer movies such as The Sheriff & the Satellite Kid or They call him Bulldozer & Julia Kent a TV actress from the german tv. Oddly enough is the fact that Royal Destiny is copyrighted in 1998 exactly the same year Raymond Harmstorf passed away & Julia Kent did her last role on German TV.

http://www.lisafilm.at/lisafilm/liland/template/film-%2CFilmDetail.vm/film_site/FilmMetadataForm.vm/filmid/470/mode/modify/sitepath/%2Cfilme%2Cfilmografie%2C

The technical info from Lisa film website adds Bryan Baker & Mike Abbott also took part on Royal destiny as actors, as well as Brent Gilbert. This info confirms the added material to Royal Destiny was shot during 1987/88 while Gilbert & Abbott starred the first chapters of War City saga as well as some chapters of American / Advent Commando saga.

Meanwhile if you Click this link to check IMDB Lisa Films produced movies from 1965 to 2010. The movies co-produced with IFD are missing. The same happens if we check Raymund Harmstorf, Julia Kent or Otto Retzer filmographies.
http://www.imdb.es/company/co0093385/

I hope & wish we could enjoy one day a dvd release of Royal Destiny. Joseph Lai has provided us a lot of rare movies from Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan & Korea, but it seems his co-production with Lisa Films has the privilege to be the rarest movie ever produced by IFD. Now I have to be happy just watching the original trailer.

Did you see Bruce Fontaine, Danny Ng, Mark Watson ( Mike Abbott's deadliest enemy in IFD movies), Bryan Baker & many other are on this movie???? It seems Royal Destiny has not an asian source movie as main body but regular gweiloh actors shots plus the german actors new fotage.