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The actor and director is already a popular producer in Germany, and as he reflects on the journey that brought him here, he will play his biggest American role to date in the spin-off drama "Army of the Dead".

Matthias Schweighöfer felt the pressure. This is his first day in the Army of the Undead. He has just met Zach Schneider, a director he has always admired. Now, he must present his most challenging scene and prove that casting is the right choice.

"In the original version, it was a 10-minute scene. It was really great," Schweiger said as they tried to recruit his security cracker, Ludwig Deiter, for a zombie infestation. During the robbery, he gave a monologue to co-stars Dave Bautista and Ana de la Reguera.

For Schweiger, this was an important moment. He spent part of his childhood behind the iron curtain and dreamed of coming to the United States to make movies. Although he was nervous, something rang soon.

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"For a moment I knew,'Well, I'm in this movie,'" Schweighöfer recalled. "When Dave touched the blueprint, I said,'Take your sausage fingers away, Mr. Big Hand.' Dave started laughing. Zac started laughing. I knew,'Well, welcome to this show.' "

When "Army of the Dead" debuted in May, Dieter became an audience favorite. Now, just five months later, Schweeverer is back on the screen and starred in the rom-com robbery prequel bandit army. This time he is both a star and a director, because his passion and childish charm have given Zach Schneier Deborah Schneider was impressed with production partner Deborah Schneider.

"I think he finally made the Germans unattractive. The Germans don't tell jokes and we can't laugh at ourselves," said Hans Zimmer, a German compatriot, who scored for the band of thieves.

In Germany, Schweighöfer has successfully established himself as a producer with the 2015 comedy The Manny and the 2013 romantic comedy The Breakup Man. But breaking into the United States feels like another world.

"It always feels far away, like reaching Zach and Debbie Snyder's universe somewhere on another planet," Schweiger said.

There is a touching moment in "Army of Thieves", Schweiger’s hero Sebastian explains his past as a nerd boy dreaming of another life-opening the safe and telling Ludwig Di The name of Te is running around the world.

Schweighöfer had his own dream since he was a child. He did not crack it safely, but was obsessed with American movies. He grew up in East Germany behind the Berlin Wall, watched Russian-German TV shows, and knew very little about the West. At the age of 9, when the Berlin Wall fell, he watched his first American movie "ET: Aliens". The screening in an old cinema in Frankfurt surprised him, especially considering that he knew too little about the West and he was not sure what was true.

"When the wall fell, I saw ET, and I thought,'Fuck me, great time. Are there aliens in the world? There are spaceships? They are on this planet? What the hell is going on? '" he recalled. "I really thought,'If this is the West, I want to live there.'"

He is obsessed with Hollywood, obsessed with Steven Spielberg's movies and TV shows, such as the fresh Prince Bel Air, who is the boss? And the miracle year. His parents, Geeta and Michael, are both theater actors. They broke up when he was 3 years old, but raised their son in a creative environment, Schweighöfer's mother taught drama at her school and let him try directing for the first time as a teenager.

As Schweichoff finally gained fame in Germany, he watched and admired Snyder's work from the other side of the world. As fate wishes, the army of the undead is an opportunity to bring Schweiger into their universe.

"We encountered some difficulties in playing this role," Zach Schneider said of Dieter. "We saw a lot of different people and a lot of different concepts."

Due to the challenges of casting, the team briefly considered Dittel's remodeling as a woman.

"Then we suddenly read Matthias's book and everything was completely correct," Zach Snyder said. "Matias created the character himself, and then we wrote the character for him and built the character around him."

Before the filming started, the actor from the Army of the Dead and the former Navy SEALs participated in the training camp. The SEALs decided that Schweighöfer did not need to train with a gun—unlike co-stars Bautista and Omari Hardwick—because Dieter was very different from other stubborn characters. This helps to unlock the role of the actor.

"I thought,'When everyone is quiet, I can speak loudly. I can destroy things. I start to do all the different things," the actor said. "It's the same in "Army of Thieves." I have such a big playground to do naive things."

Zach Schneider was surprised by the choice of a character that became a trademark: Dieter's scream.

"I didn't expect it. No one did that," said the Undead Army film producer. "He just made that amazing scream, and suddenly we realized it would be a signature."

After the shooting of the Army of the Undead began, Netflix executives began to watch samples, and it was obvious that Dieter would be a breakthrough. At the same time, the Snyders’ mission was to figure out ways to expand the Army’s world, and David Kosse, the international head of Netflix, asked for something that could be broadcast globally.

"Everyone was fascinated by [Dieter], and we started to discuss,'How about Dieter?'" Deborah Snyder recalled. She invited Schweighöfer to drink coffee while filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and had an early discussion of the idea.

Next, Zach Schneider collaborated with co-author Shay Harten to envision the army of thieves working in Italy, but with their trademark style (plus some zombie references).

Schweighöfer recently broke into the thriller world with the Amazon series "You Wanted" and is eager to explore new director tools. He quickly put his hat on the ring of "Army of Thieves". But the Snyders were not familiar with his job as a film producer. Therefore, they asked about his experience and watched "Wanted Order", which helped convince them that he was their choice. Netflix's Kosse is also a fan, because the two had previously collaborated on a project.

"We hugged. Debbie and Zach were like,'What happened now? What did we miss?'" Schweighöfer recalled a meeting, and Kosse greeted him warmly. "After that, it moved so fast. We got approval, and Zach called me and said,'Do you want to guide?'"

Schweighöfer spent time with Zack Snyder and screenwriter Hatten before returning to Germany. Two months later, he received the first draft and started working. He formed an international cast, and Netflix encouraged him and Snyders to choose actors that are attractive to different regions, such as France's Jonathan Cohen, who was assigned to play the role of the Interpol agent to hunt down the thief team.

At that time, the Army of the Undead had just begun to screen for the test audience, and the Snyders were happy to see that their intuition for Dieter was correct.

"We knew he would become the most popular person," said producer Deborah Snyder. "When we tested this movie, he got his favorite role."

When "Army of Thieves" was about to be filmed in Prague, the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the world and saw the production crew leave the city. The army still exists and Schweiger completed the entire project during COVID.

"The bubble we created is a very happy bubble," the filmmaker said.

In order to balance the responsibilities of acting and director, Schweighöfer and photographer Bernhard Jasper made extra preparations every day. They planned the scene so that Schweighöfer's own close-up shots are at the end, so that he can separate the performance from the director.

"Everything is a storyboard. From day one, everything is very clear," Schweighöfer said.

When he performs in a scene, he likes actors to forget that he is their director. If he wants to adjust something, he can adjust it through his performance.

"As a director, I don't like being conceited. I know what I can do to make all the actors I work with play the best role," said the filmmaker.

Although "Rogue" contains the most ambitious action clips of his career as a director, Schweiger's most nervous is with his robbery team (played by Nathalie Emmanuel, Guz Khan, Ruby O. Fee, and Stuart Martin) The scene of a joking truck together.

"You have to be very complementary to all these people in order to give full play to their role," the filmmaker said. "I remember, we did something in the van to enter this small space with all these people and [capture] the rhythm. That's one thing I thought,'If we mess up, I can't call Debbie said,'We need to shoot another day in this van scene.'"

If a star like Tom Cruise is injured in Mission: The Impossible Movie, it will shut down and spend millions of dollars in production costs. This is especially true if the star director is injured. Therefore, for stunt performances—including a chase scene being thrown out of a van and a bicycle—Schweighöfer relied heavily on three stunt doubles, which his producers appreciated.

"I really like it because it gives me some freedom to say,'No, I won't do these stunts,'" said the filmmaker, who discouraged doing too much. "Everyone said,'Thank you very much.'"

For the Snyder family, the thieves came at a particularly busy time. In order to insert the comedian Tig Notaro into the film, they are completing additional photography about the army of death. They also completed Zach Schneider's Justice League, including filming additional scenes. The coronavirus means that they cannot go to the "Thief" set, which is a challenge for filmmakers who like to make hands-on production.

"I read the daily newspaper. I talk to Matthias almost every day," said Deborah Snyder, who believes their relationship with the Army of the Undead makes remote relationships work.

At the end of the filming, Schweighöfer squatted at home with editor Alex Banner, who suggested editing the movie without any music.

"The first three or four versions of the movie were very silent. It was just a performance," Schweighöfer said. "I realized these two hours, they are really useful. It is a very interesting process for me. If there is no music for a scene or a movie, the movie will only be better."

When Zimmer volunteered to rate the film, it checked a bucket list item for Schweighöfer.

"When he played music for the first time, I really cried," Schweighöfer said. "I think I will run around in the kitchen at home for a week. I thought,'Hans Zimmer said yes to this movie! He is making this movie! After a while, my girlfriend Started running around the house with the children. "My dad is working with Hans Zimmer! This is wonderful! '"

For Oscar winner Zimmer, who grew up in a small village on the outskirts of Frankfurt, he found a like-minded person in Schweiger. He couldn’t believe that a boy from East Germany was serving as one of Hollywood’s biggest producers. A film duo of this size.

"You definitely think he has that kind of respect," Zimmer said. "This is everything we have always dreamed of, and it's actually possible to come from nowhere and do it."

The first thing viewers might do after watching "Army of Thieves" is to make "Army of Death" relive Dieter's last moments. The way Zack Snyder edits it is a bit ambiguous, which begs the question, is Dieter really gone?

Schweighöfer is hopeful.

"I watched the movie again, and I said,'No. Maybe, there's a chance. Then I called Zach. "Zach, can we talk about the death scene in the army of death?" "He said,'No. We won't talk about this. But maybe there is a chance. I'll let you know if I get the chance.'"

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