Bill Rebane

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Bill Rebane

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bill Rebane

Born

Ito Rebane

February 8, 1937 (age 76)

Riga, Latvia

Nationality American

Other names Bill Rebane

Education Art Institute of Chicago  

Occupation

Film director 

Film producer 

Screenwriter 

Years active 1963 –  present

Known for Low budget films  

Notable work(s) The Giant Spider Invasion, Twist Craze 

Spouse(s) Barbara J.

Baron[1] Bill Rebane (born February 8, 1937) is an American film director, producer,and screenwriter. He is best known for  low budget horror movies such as Twist Craze 

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and The Giant Spider Invasion.[2][3][4] Rebane also ran for the governor of  Wisconsin in1979 and 2002 as the American Reform Party candidate.[3][5] 

Contents

  1 Biography   2 Accomplishments 

o  2.1 Recognition   3 Career  

o  3.1 Post-college o  3.2 Baltes and Cinema Scope o  3.3 Early film production o  3.4 Radio o  3.5 First science fiction project o  3.6 Studio Bendestorf  o 

3.7 The Shooting Ranch o  3.8 Additional projects o  3.9 Filmography 

  3.9.1 Films   3.9.2 Television 

o  3.10 Critical response o  3.11 Bibliography 

  4 References o  4.1 Addition reference materials 

  5 Further reading   6 External links 

Biography

Rebane came to the United States from Estonia in 1952 at age 15.[3] His mother wasLatvian and his father, Arnold Rebane, was Estonian. 

He attended school in post-war Germany as a child, becoming conversant in four languages: Estonian, Latvian, German and Russian. By watching American cinema, hewas able to master English.[3] He attended the Art Institute of Chicago/GoodmanTheatre, majoring in drama.[3] 

Accomplishments

Rebane is credited with the introduction of the first 360 degree (wrap around) motion picture process to the Motion Picture Industry of the world, an innovation that spurredthe Cinemax process and today's Rotascope cameras; as the creator of the WisconsinFilm Office; as the producer, director, writer, and cinematographer on 12 independentfeature films, all of which have enjoyed successful international theatrical release; as

 producer/director of one of the fifty top-grossing films 1975 (The Giant Spider 

 Invasion, $23 million gross in 1975); as having produced, directed, edited, and production designed at least one hundred commercial, industrial, corporate image,documentary or promotion films; and for the creation and successful operation of thefirst full-time feature film studio in the Midwest for over 30 years.[3] 

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Recognition

In October 2009, Rebane received the Wisconsin Filmmaker 'Lifetime AchievementAward', presented to him at the 2009 Madison Horror Film Festival.[6] 

Career

Post-college

Rebane's first positions in media included working for  WGN-TV in Chicago, where heworked his way through the ranks, beginning with a position in the mailroom, and thenas floor manager, assistant producer, and assistant to executive producer .[2] Partaking in

 production of various live television broadcasts, also allowed him the opportunities asan actor and singer, resulting in appearances on such shows as the courtroom dramaseries They Stand Accused  and the syndicated musical-variety series The International 

Cafe.

Baltes and Cinema Scope

Rebane returned to Germany at age 19, where he met and worked with producer Adalbert Baltes of  Hamburg, Germany. Rebane credits working with Baltes as his startin the film industry. After working with Baltes as a production assistant, assistantdirector, and director on various 'Cinema Scope Theatrical Short Subjects' for 'BaltesFilm', Rebane obtained the U.S. rights to the 'Cinetarium' circular motion picture

 process.[3][ full citation needed ] 

Rebane returned to the U.S. and introduced the proprietary process to the world filmindustry through 'United Film and Recording Studios' in Chicago, attracting suchnotables as Samuel Goldwyn, Roy Disney, Jack Warner , Hugh Hefner , and MichaelTodd Jr. to the process, along with industry professionals from Russia, central Europeand Japan.

By age 22, Rebane was a millionaire. However, his early wealth was temporary, ascosts of patents, legal fees, and research into means to manufacture vertical projectionsystems, were at the time beyond the financial means of the companies he had formedfor development of the process.

Early film production

Rebane then turned to film production. His first independent production effort was theten-minute musical theatrical short subject called Twist Craze which was purchased byAmerican International Pictures. The film became an international success boththeatrically and financially, and enjoyed a 10-week holdover at the Oriental Theater  inChicago, which until that time, was an unheard phenomenon for independent shortsubject theatrical productions. The film earned twenty times its production cost.

Rebane followed this success with a 20-minute theatrical musical short titled  Dance

Craze, which surpassed the success of Twist Craze, ultimately being purchased byCrown International Pictures for international release.

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Radio

Rebane's interests in media, and performance, and with the professional contacts he hadmade, led to his position as co-host of the Germania  broadcast at Chicago's WGES radio station, at the time the largest and most popular German-language broadcast in

America. As a daily evening one-hour live show, it allowed Rebane to create, produce,and host other radio shows on WKFM, Chicago's first FM station, as well as leavingtime open for his day job as national public relations director and assistant advertisingdirector for the American distributor for the German firm Grundig Radio. 

First science fiction project

In 1961 Rebane decided to make a feature film,[2] and in 1963 he began production of the science fiction feature film Terror at Halfway, starring June Travis and Peter Thompson, which marked Rebane's becoming the first producer in Chicago to tackle anindependent feature film production with a full union crew and screen actors guildtalent. A chance meeting with Ronald Reagan nearly attached Reagan to the film.however, Rebane’s financial contacts would not go along, claiming Reagan was a "has

 been" and not worth the investment. Unable to finance the completion of the film,Rebane sold his completed footage to Herschell Gordon Lewis. Lewis went on tocomplete the film and release the film as  Monster A Go-Go in 1965.

Studio Bendestorf 

At age 23, Rebane returned to Germany as executive-in-charge of U.S. co-productionsfor 'Studio Bendestorf', in Bendestorf , Germany, in which he had an interest, opening

offices in Chicago and Hollywood. Commuting to and from Germany on a bi-weekly basis, Rebane dealt with the major studios to attract producers to Germany and lower costs of production.[3] Some films which found a partial or full home for production atRebane's Bendestorf Studio facility and through Rebane's contact efforts included

 Dollar  (Goldie Hawn / Scott Brady),  How I Won the War  (John Lennon), and The

Odessa File (Jon Voight).[3] 

The Shooting Ranch

In the late 1960s, Rebane purchased a farm property near  Gleason, Wisconsin andmoved there with his family. Apart from the property being used to raise cattle and

horses, it also eventually became home to Rebane's studio 'The Shooting Ranch',[7] thefacility which was the first full-time feature film studio in the Midwest.[3] 'The ShootingRanch', held the position of "first and only" for over 30 years, eventually growing to200 acres (0.81 km2), and producing hundreds of  commercials, industrial, and corporateimage films, plus a number theatrical features for international theatrical theatricaldistribution and exposure.[3] 

Rebane acknowledges fellow filmmaker, producer Jerry Gregoris of Chicago, for allowing Rebane directorial and post-production responsibilities and subsequent creditson industrial films made for such clients as the Teamsters union, the Republican Partyof Indiana, State Farm Insurance, the City of Chicago, and Wausau Insurance.[3] 

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Rebane used his studio to produce and direct a number of sci-fi/horror films, the first being  Invasion from Inner Earth (1974), screenwritten by his wife Barbara, it was shotin 1973 with the working title of The Selected .[8] 

His next film project was The Giant Spider Invasion, starring Alan Hale Jr., Barbara

Hale, and Steve Brodie. The film grossed $23 million[3]

 against its $325,000 productioncosts.[2] This was followed by  Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake (1975), The Alpha

 Incident  (1978), The Capture of Bigfoot  (1979), The Demons of Ludlow (1983) and The

Game (1984).[3] 

In 1984 Rebane took a break from production to assume the Presidency of  TheInternational Picture Show Company in Atlanta, where he took charge of internationaldistribution for such products as  Falling in Love Again (Elliott Gould), Slapstick  (JerryLewis),  Land of No Return (William Shatner ), and many of the Don Knotts and TimConway comedy features.

In 1986, Rebane returned to 'The Shooting Ranch' and hosted a 1950s nostalgia concert.Among the invitees were Forrest Tucker , Jaye P. Morgan, Bill Haley's Comets, andTiny Tim. Rebane later cast Tiny Tim in  Blood Harvest  in the role of an insane clown,[9] which was Tim's first and last starring role.[10] Also in 1986, and due to Rebane'songoing efforts extending from 1969, Wisconsin passed legislation establishing theWisconsin Film Office.[3] 

In 1987, Rebane released both Twister's Revenge! and Blood Harvest ,[3] and in 1989Rebane suffered a stroke, which illness and the costs it incurred led to the closure of hisstudio.[3] 

Additional projects

In the mid-1990s, and after recovery, Rebane and his wife moved to Watersmeet,Michigan where he wrote the book  Film funding two-thousand , and in 1999 he movedto Hurley, Wisconsin, where he and his wife ran a hotel and a new film productioncompany called 'Eagle's Nest Productions'.[3] He currently lives in Saxon, Wisconsin.[11] 

In 2005 it was reported that Rebane was casting The UFO File, a film to bring him back to the science fiction genre.[11] 

In 2008 he authored From Roswell with Love.

In 2011, Rebane is producing a musical based on his film The Giant Spider Invasion. 

Filmography

Films

As director/producer [12][13][14] 

   Monster A Go-Go (1965)   Invasion from Inner Earth (1974)  The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)

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   Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake (1975)  The Alpha Incident  (1978)  The Capture of Bigfoot  (1979)  The Demons of Ludlow (1983)  The Game (1984)

  Twister's Revenge! (1987)   Blood Harvest  (1987)

Television

Both  Monster A Go-Go and The Giant Spider Invasion were featured on TV's "MysteryScience Theater 3000".

Critical response

Doug Moe of  The Capital Times reported that Rebane's film The Giant Spider Invasion,

first released in 1975, has a growing cult following, selling out genre festivals such as itdid at the Wisconsin Film Festival in 2003.[11] 

Bibliography

  2000, Film funding two-thousand  ISBN 0-9704283-0-8   2008, From Roswell with Love ISBN 1-4196-8399-3 

References

1.  Jump up ^ hereditary titled nobility" Baron" through his great-great-grandfather; Dr.Friedrich Willhelm Mac Donald, recipient of the Vlademier Cross and the order of St.Anne, Imperial Russia

2.  ^ Jump up to: a  b  c  d  Bluhm, Donald A. (November 3, 1991). "Sneak a preview as film isshot".  Milwaukee Journal  (Google News Archive). pp. H1 & H8. Retrieved June 28,2010.

3.  ^ Jump up to: a  b  c  d  e  f   g  h  i   j  k  l  m  n  o  p  q  r  Gilpatrick, Kristin (2002).  Famous Wisconsin

 film stars (illustrated ed.). Badger Books, Inc. pp. 247 – 253, 323, 328. ISBN 1-878569-86-4. Retrieved June 27, 2010.

4.  Jump up ^ "Bill Rebane". The New York Times. Retrieved June 28, 2010.5.  Jump up ^ Van Beest, A. J. (2002). "Saxon Filmmaker Throws Hat In Gubernatorial

Ring".  Ashland Daily Press (critcononline.com). Retrieved June 28, 2010.6.  Jump up ^ "Horror film festival playing in Madison".  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . 

Associated Press. October 3, 2009. Retrieved June 28, 2010.7.  Jump up ^ McBain, Roger (December 5, 1984). "Star-studded state casts about for 

work".  Milwaukee Journal  (Google News Archive). Retrieved June 28, 2010.8.  Jump up ^ Christensen, Hal (December 10, 1973). "Movie Cameras Roll at

Tomahawk".  Milwaukee Sentinel  (Google News Archive). Retrieved June 28, 2010.9.  Jump up ^ "Tiny Tim Bets on Movie To Renewal of His Fame". Schenectady Gazette 

(Google News Archive). Associated Press. August 24, 1987. Retrieved June 28, 2010.10. Jump up ^ "Tiptoes Through Film".  Free Lance-Star  (Google News Archive).

Associated Press. August 26, 1987. Retrieved June 28, 2010.[dead link ] 11. ^ Jump up to: a  b  c  Moe, Doug (March 4, 2005). "Wisconsin's Rebane casts new film". 

Capital Times. Retrieved June 28, 2010.12. Jump up ^ Fischer, Dennis (2000). Science fiction film directors, 1895 – 1998.McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0740-9. 

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13. Jump up ^ Young, R. G. (2000). The encyclopedia of fantastic film: Ali Baba to

 Zombies (illustrated ed.). Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 1-55783-269-2. 14. Jump up ^ Weldon, Michael (1996). The psychotronic video guide (illustrated ed.).

Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-13149-6. 

Addition reference materials

Who’s Who in Leading American Executives 1994 (U.S Registry)Gods in Polyester, or, a Survivors' Account of 70's Cinema Obscura  by SuzanneDonahue, Succubus Press, 2004, ISBN 90-808700-1-3 Gods in Spandex, or, a Survivors' Account of 80's Cinema Obscura, by SuzanneDonahue, Succubus Press, 2007, ISBN 952-92-2409-5 Monthly publications:

 Dun & Bradstreet Reports  Nation's Business Wisconsin Report  

Further reading

   Film funding two-thousand by Bill Rebane   From Roswell With Love by Bill Rebane   Famous Wisconsin Movie Stars (Badger Books)  Gods In Polyester, or, a Survivors' Account of 70's Cinema Obscura (Succubus

Press/2004)

Rebane contributed chapters on the making of  The Giant Spider Invasion and

The Alpha Incident .

  Gods In Spandex, or, a Survivors' Account of 80's Cinema Obscura (SuccubusPress/2007)

Rebane contributed chapters on the making of  The Game,  Demons of Ludlow,Twister's Revenge and  Blood Harvest . 

External links

  Bill Rebane at the Internet Movie Database   Official website 

Authority control  

  VIAF: 87520955 

  ISNI: 0000 0000 7826 7670 

  GND: 14096844X 

Retrieved from

"http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Rebane&oldid=569512149 " Categories: 

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  1937 births   Living people   American people of Estonian descent   Estonian emigrants to the United States   American people of Latvian descent 

  People from Riga   People from Iron County, Wisconsin   Writers from Wisconsin   American film directors   Wisconsin politicians   American Reform Party politicians 

Source Material: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Rebane 

More Info: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0714215/ 

Movies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_A_Go-Go 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_from_Inner_Earth 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giant_Spider_Invasion 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croaked:_Frog_Monster_from_Hell 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Incident 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Capture_of_Bigfoot 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demons_of_Ludlow