| Info
on the "UVL Filmproduction International" Scam run by "Gery Greene" and "Dr. Maurice
zu Buehren"
by Tony Caulfield, 05.08.2006
On July 3, 2006, I distributed
a warning regarding a company named "UVL Filmproduction International" which provably
had been using a lot of lies and fake press releases to get in touch with writers,
actors and other folks working within the film industry. Obviously, their intentions
were fraudulent.
Many of my contacts receiving this warning were so kind
to pass it on and soon it showed up on many internet forums and other media, with
my name being mentioned. As a result, I've been contacted by fellow artists from
throughout Europe and the US, who have fallen victim to this scam and are seeking
further info.
Even though this fraudulent company seems to have demised
by now, apparently a lot of questions are still open and there is a certain possibility
that the people behind this scam - (Dr.) Gery Greene and Dr. Maurice zu Buehren
(probably just two - fake - names for the same person) - are still trying to continue
their fraud with artists who haven't yet heard the facts about "UVL Filmproduction
International". That's why I've decided to publish this article on the recent
events involving "UVL Filmproduction International" here on Tony
Caulfield.com, for everybody who was scammed by UVL to get informed and hopefully
be prevented from (further) harm.
While I appreciate what some have wrote
in their e-mails, I'm clearly not to be credited for the destruction of this fraud.
Some of the ones deserving your thanks a lot more than I do are mentioned in this
article; and there are many others I'm not even aware of. All I'm doing is contributing
to the distribution of the facts...just as many others have done and still do.
The
first time UVL came to my attention was when they started seeking German actors
to star in a drama feature titled "Moments - Better Never Ends", claiming Julia
Roberts and Hugh Grant had already signed for this project. Since I had come across
a lot of scams in the past, I did some research on "UVL Filmproduction International"
and the names mentioned on their website (which in the meanwhile went offline):
"Gery Greene" and "Dr. Maurice zu Buehren".
What I found were a few press
releases and posts on Keanu Reeves fan boards claiming that Keanu Reeves were
a co-owner of UVL. According to these press releases UVL had co-produced "The
Lake House" starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Allegedly, further projects
with Keanu were already in pre-production, such as "Up to the Ground" also starring
Jennifer Garner, Michelle Williams and Marylin Manson.
Some of these press
releases are still online:
http://openpr.com/news/8122.html
Granted,
the official "Lake House" site did not include any credits for UVL or Gery Greene,
Dr. Maurice zu Buehren, or for some of the other interesting-sounding names of
people allgedly involved in UVL, such as Leander van Achternbusch, Angelica Meuser,
Florian Gailsdorf...which nobody I know had ever heard of. And certainly this
should have alerted me that something is wrong with that company. But I guess
- in spite of all the negative experiences I made so far - I'm still adhering
to my Jane
Bennet approach and "always think the best of everyone"...until I become sufficiently
convinced that there is mischief going on.
So I decided to proceed unprejudiced
and get an impression of what "UVL Filmproduction International" was all about.
My resume was submitted to their e-mail address along with a note that they should
contact me via e-mail if they're interested in a cooperation.
A few days later I received mail from my buddy Dirk
who told me he was currently in talks with Gery Greene of UVL about yet another
upcoming movie project and that Gery had asked him for my phone number. I allowed
Dirk to pass my number on to him cause "if he's one of your contacts then I know
he's okay". (Yes, that was, indeed, rather starry-eyed...don't do this at home,
kids.)
For some reason Gery Greene was unable or unwilling to call my
number once he had received it. Instead of mailing me he mailed Dirk whether I
could call him. Strange enough, since he had my e-mail address. However, some
of the most brilliant people I know are eccentrics, so I decided to call him the
following day and get to know him ere I form an opinion.
Gery Greene
and I phoned for over an hour. The very few business-relevant things he told me
centered around their (alleged) cooperation with Keanu Reeves. He claimed that
UVL had obtained the "exclusive rights to produce and manage Keanu Reeves". For
some upcoming projects UVL wanted to build up a pool of German actors whom they'd
also like to manage and put them into medium to big budget Hollywood productions.
So far, however, they hadn't found anyone competent, with proper work ethics,
talent, etc...
While that seemed astounding to me, Gery Greene managed
to come across as a somewhat peculiar, quite sensitive and overly insecure person.
I'm usually sympathetic to that type of personality so I willingly overlooked
the fact that he permanently diverted attention from the actual project and even
complained about "having to talk so much about himself" cause "he needs to conserve
his voice". So I attributed it to his in some respects quite diva-esque personality
that he must have had some trouble communicating with potential cooperators.
He proceeded to tell me that he was insecure whether I was really interested
in working with him and soon after that had to end the call to "have a meeting",
but told me that he'd like to talk to me again if I were truly interested in a
cooperation.
Two days later we phoned again and I confronted him regarding
his insecurity: "If you have produced Hollywood movies with Keanu Reeves, why
not allow yourself to be self-secure enough to believe that if somebody calls
you and expresses his interest to cooperate, that person is really serious about
it?" Again, he blamed it on the type of personalities he had run into while trying
to get in touch with artists inside Germany.
We kept on talking and while
I felt something was strange about that guy...I actually grew to like him and
saw no real reason not to believe what he claimed. Gery Greene asked me whether
I could recommend some talented actresses and actors to him who were also great
to work with. I told him the names of two girls and two guys whom I had enjoyed
working with and knew to be brilliant and of good character. He asked me whether
I could recommend him to them and take care of organizing meetings, etc...
Since I believed the insecurity he displayed to be an authentic part of his
personality (which I found somewhat tragic) I agreed. Also believing I could help
some great artists and nice people to get into new interesting projects, I mailed
them a summary of my impressions of Gery Greene and told them to get in touch
with him if they were interested in new movie projects at the time.
The
same evening I called my friend Ingo
who turned out to be doing business in Budapest at the time but was about to fly
back to Germany the next day. He called back the following evening and we talked
about Gery Greene, "UVL Filmproduction International" and that I'd like to arrange
a meeting with him, Gery and a few others to talk about future projects. Ingo
doesn't trust people as easily as I and Dirk do and he was a bit sceptical from
the beginning. He advised me not to make any investments and said he'd call some
of his contacts to check on UVL and the folks running it, himself.
The next day Ingo informed
me that a German TV show titled "Monitor" had aired a story about Dr. Maurice
zu Buehren not long ago, claiming that zu Buehren had scammed children out of
their money with some "homework help" scheme where the kids had to call a phone
number that cost several Euros per minute. He had also been told that zu Buehren
had cheated investors within the film industry.
Dirk and I phoned about
this new info. He told me that he and his business partner René
had sent treatments and other material to Gery Greene and were now concerned that
UVL would rip off their ideas. Especially since Gery Greene had refused to sign
any kind of written contract. René had also been asked to organize a casting for
UVL; when he inquired about the budget for this, Gery reportedly just laughed
and told him that this would have to be done on some sort of "quid pro quo" basis.
Finally, I was convinced that UVL was spreading lies. I sent a mail to Keanu
Reeves' agent Kevin Huvane of CAA, informing him on UVL's claims and asking him
for info. He forwarded my mail to Erwin Stoff of 3Arts Entertainment, one of the
producers of "The Lake House". Their replies confirmed what I had already expected
by then: "Keanu has nothing to with this company.... Never heard of it."
I passed on the info to the actresses I had told about UVL, apologizing for having
failed to check more diligently before issuing a recommendation and phoned with
Dirk and René again, who had by now found out that the UVL company address is
fake. There is a similar-sounding address in the village the UVL office was allegedly
located in...which they found out to be the private residence of a senior citizen
who has nothing to do with the film industry and probably never heard of Gery
Greene, Maurice zu Buehren and "UVL Filmproduction International".
This
is when I sent mail to all of my contacts:
"A company that names itself
"UVL Filmproduction International" currently tries to hire writers, actors and
other folks working within the film industry, thereby falsely claiming (in press
releases and ads I got in hand) that Keanu Reeves were a co-owner of "UVL" and
that "UVL" had co-produced movies such as 'The Lake House'.
I got written
info by Kevin Huvane (CAA) and Erwin Stoff (3Arts Entertainment) that these are
lies. Apparently the goal of "UVL" is scamming people. Please don't send any important
material to the people behind "UVL" ("Gery Greene", "Dr. Maurice zu Buehren")
and don't waste time on endless phone calls."
Silvia,
a writer/journalist buddy of mine, posted my e-mail on a film related internet
forum, resulting in a lot of feedback from artists who had also been in touch
with Gery Greene. Some of them had already realized that something was wrong with
UVL, many hadn't been sure yet. A few said Gery Greene had stalked their agents
after they told him they weren't interested in a cooperation.
A few days
later René sent me a mail he had received by Dr. Maurice zu Buehren. Zu Buehren
had read my warning and claimed he was preparing to file a lawsuit against me
and against anyone who would pass on my info about their scam. Moreover, they
would hold a press conference with Keanu Reeves around the beginning of August.
Apparently he believed he could make René believe that I were the liar.
But at that time René didn't even pick up the phone anymore when Gery was calling.
Their lies were exposed.
Of course they never actually tried to sue me
and never even informed me personally about this "intention". And we can safely
assume that nobody ever informed Keanu Reeves that he's supposed to show up at
a press conference with people he never heard of to talk about non-existent projects.
During the following days Silvia did further research and also talked to
Warner Bros. who had never heard of UVL and were shocked about the audacity of
these con artists. UVL had also claimed to work with Showerman-Morris
Productions. I contacted Clint Morris who wrote me he was shocked to hear
that UVL linked to their site. He said Dr. zu Buehren had stalked him for a while,
trying to get scripts and sending fake mails signed with "Keanu Reeves and Maurice".
Other artists who mailed me the following days and weeks said similar things.
There was a mail by Dario,
an Italian writer/director who was understandably angry about having lost time
and money in the process of dealing with UVL. They had claimed they wanted to
co-produce his next movie. When Dario had read the UVL warning online and confronted
Gery Greene, Greene told him that Dr. zu Buehren had died and therefore the company
underwent some "changes".
Recently, Dirk called me again to discuss an
upcoming movie project. As we got to the UVL topic again he told me about rumors
that Gery Greene had confessed to some German talent agency that UVL was "fake"
and apparently he blamed everything on "Maurice zu Buehren". It might be guessed
that Gery and "zu Buehren" are the same person and Gery Greene is trying to play
innocent now.
Many asked me: "Why have they been doing this?" I guess
they wanted to:
A) collect scripts and ideas to steal them
B) attach a
lot of writers, actors,...to their (fake) upcoming projects and then get investors...to
run away with the money.
So far, nobody can prove this - but if they had honest
intentions they wouldn't have based their "business" on lies.
The harm
that UVL has caused doesn't restrict to the time and money that was wasted in
dealing with them. The father of a young actor whom UVL had promised a role in
an upcoming movie said it best in a recent e-mail, stating the whole affair was
"emotionally devastating to our family."
If there's any "upside" to all
of this, it's in seeing how the artists community can bring down scams like "UVL
Filmproduction International" and thereby prevent others from being harmed by
simply sticking together and distributing the facts.
Take care!
P.S.: On March 15, a sequel to this article has been published on Tony Caulfield.com,
titled Tony
Caulfield Q & A 2008, Part 1: What Happened to "Gery Greene" and the "UVL Filmproduction
International" Scam?
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