The Book

The Book about A Bouquet for a Kill

o.k. let´s see what we have: a producer from Germany is shooting with Lydie Denier, Hollywood actress who did star and guest star in Acapulco H.E.A.T. , Tarzan, Melrose Place, Two Men and a Half and a wellknown German actress. While shooting Denier wants to push out Producer Michael Huck to take over the picure to Hollywood Mega Producer Avi Lerner. When Lydie´s take-over attempt fails she takes some tapes with original footage with her and Huck sends German police after her. Now Denier runs completely amok, goes to Santa Monica Court and says Huck is not a producer but a crazy fan, madly in love with her and has threatened to kill her!!!

I think this would make a lovely book and maybe one day a big Hollywood producer like Avi Lerner will buy this book to make a movie, a crazy comedy about crazy people. Nice idea, isn´t it? That´s what I think too, so the next couple of months I will write a book about what happened , right from the start.

This book will also give you some ideas how low budget filmmaking works, so I think it is really interesting, the book will also show show how difficult it sometimes will be to deal with actresses who are running amok and it will show how to finance and produce low budget thrillers.

What this book makes totally different from other books on filmmaking is of course the stalker chapter. It does not happen too often that a director / actress accuses her producer to be a stalker with all the legal problems attached, so this is also a very interesting issue and filmmakers can see how fast you can get involved in legal trouble.

I will publish some of the book´s chapters here on this blog.

Sincerely Yours,

Michael Huck

Photo above: Copyright 2007 by Jörg Peter.
This photo shows Lydie Denier with German super playboy Rolf Eden.
Jörg took the photo while shooting the long version. Rolf Eden is a good friend of my partner Katja Bienert and he allowed us to use one of his Rolls Royce automobiles and his home to shoot some scenes. I was not present that day at Rolf´s home but later that day met Lydie, Michael Worth and other cast and crew members at the Hedler Studios in Tempelhof where we shot the PI office scenes with Michael Worth. Jörg called me that day to tell me to have a look at a Newspaper. Lydie and Roswitha had given an interview to reporters while I was not present and told them A Bouquet for a Kill is an US production. They did not mention my name and later I read in another interview thay had given they told A Bouquet for a Kill is shot for an US "women´s channel".

Lydie´s Paintings 2

Lydie´s Paintings
You can see photos of some of Denier´s paintings on her facebook site. I like especially the one with the frog, it´s really cute. Some of those paintings she had left with me when we shot A Bouquet for a Kill.
How do you explain this, Lydie?
As I already mentioned, I do not want the paintings. They belong to Lydie. She did create the paintings and I always wanted the paintings to be returned to her.

It was Lydie´s decision to NOT pick them up or let them pick up for almost three years now. We had to rise the amount for storing the paintings now, maybe she will let pick them up now. The longer she waits the more it will cost. I had to ask a lawyer to take care of this problem and Lydie created the problem. And maybe she stops now to try to come up with new fairy tales.

What did she achieve? She did not finish our movie. So far I lost much money because of Lydie´s behavior. She did dissapoint crew and actors we worked with us when she did not finish her job as a director. Instead of dealing honest with the problems she herself had created she created more problems involving more and more lawyers and involving Santa Monica Court telling them I am a stalker and not her producer.
She did break US law in doing so. She did lie to US authorities. Trying to outsmart me she gets herself more and more in trouble.

Why does she do all this nonsense? It´s so easy to just tell the truth:
We shot a movie together. I am not a stalker. I am the producer of A BOUQUET FOR A KILL - the producer who paid the movie, Lydie´s flights, hotel stay...
It´s the truth. What is so difficult she cannot admit the truth? What´s her problem with the truth? What´s her problem with just being honest?

I am not Lydie´s enemy, I never was and I still do not consider her as an enemy. She told Santa Monica court, I love her and that I want to be together with her (in the romantic sense). This is not true. She told Santa Monica Court I threatened to kill her and that I hate her. This is also not true. I consider Lydie a wonderful actress but I will fight her as long as I live as long as she will not return my video tapes.

I do not hate Lydie, I fight her because it is my job as a producer to finish my movie and I need the tapes she took with her to edit the movie. The crew and actors who worked with Lydie and me can expect me to fight for our movie.
I never did involve Lydie´s paintings in this fight. I wrote her right in may 2007 she can pick up her paintings, the paintings are hers and I do not consider them part of our fight. So why didn´t she just call me and let some of her German "friends" pick up the paintings?

And why does she not return my tapes? I offered her we both can edit our own versions. I will edit my producer´s cut and I will give her a HDD with all scenes so she can edit a direcor´s cut, the way she wants to do it - and then we release both versions. Lydie and Roswitha told the press how great this movie is. So what is her problem? Does she really still think she can push me out and make believe people A Bouquet for a Kill is NOT Unhappy End! but a Lydie Denier movie? I think almost everyone from here to China knows now that A Bouquet for a Kill is a remake of Du sollst nicht Ehebrechen - Unhappy End!
So why not stop this stupid fight and do what I always suggested: She gives me the footage of may shooting and I give her a HDD with the scenes from february and april shooting and we just do what we promised when we signed the contracts and when Lydie came to Berlin to shoot with me A Bouquet for a Kill ?

Sincerely Yours,

Michael Huck

Photo: Copyright 2007 by Jörg Peter. Another photo of Lydie taken during shooting A Bouquet for a Kill in 2007 in Berlin, Germany.

The Painting Wars

The Paintings of Lydie Denier

And here is another nice story about Lydie and how she succeeds in creating problems where no problems have been before.
Lydie Denier is not only an actress, she is also an artist and she is painting. When we shot in Berlin she gave me some of her paintings she hoped she could sell in Germany. This was when we shot the short version. After the trouble in may, the paintings were still with me and I wrote her and her German friends, asking them to pick up Lydie´s paintings. No answer. I emailed to Lydie and I asked my lawyer to write a letter to Lydie´s agent in Paris. The letter came back. We wrote Lydie if she will not pick up or let pick up her paintings we will charge her 40 € a month to store the paintings. So for half a year I did not charge anything inspite of what Lydie did when she tried to steal my movie. I informed German police I have the paintings and I declared I do not want the paintings, and I wrote to Lydie inspite of the fact she took my video tapes, she can pick up her paintings whenever she wants because in my eyes that´s a different story. Lydie did not answer my mails and did not care about her own paintings. She did not contact neither me nor my lawyer.

Some time later, my lawyer got a letter from a Berlin lawyer who wrote that his client Sacha K. did meet in Cannes with Lydie Denier and she did sell him the paintings she once gave to me. And the lawyer asked us to give the paintings to his client. I wondered why a stranger should buy paintings from Lydie he never had seen. No art collector would buy paintings, he never had seen, would he?
Furthermore the lawyer presented us a handwritten letter, saying it is from Lydie Denier, and the letter said, Lydie had sold the paintings to Herrn K. giving him the address of my lawyer and writing the paintings are "held hostage" by a certain Michael Huck. I wondered what kind of art collector would buy PAINTINGS HE HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE , ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS TOLD THE PAINTINGS ARE HELD HOSTAGE BY SOMEONE ELSE !!! This made absouletly no sense to me and we asked the lawyer of Herrn K. to show us the contract with Ms Denier and I asked that Lydie calls and writes me to confirm she really wanted me to give her paintings to Herrn K. I also asked Herr K. had first to pay for storing the paintings.

I did some research and found out that Herr K. is a friend of Lydie´s German actress-friend.
Our Lawyers exchanged several letters and as usual it went nowhere. Then Herrn K.´s lawyer informed us that HERR K. DID RE-SELL !!!!! the paintings to Ms Denier and the laywer now wrote he is representing now Ms Denier and she wants the paintings back now. I informed him we gladly will return the paintings, after we know it is really Denier we are dealing with and AFTER SHE HAS PAID FOR THE STORING OF THE PAINTINGS.
In the meantime Lydie started to tell US courts and media the stalker story. She did not explain of course WHY SHE GAVE HER PAINTINGS TO SOMEONE WHO ACCORDING TO HER HAD STALKED HER SINCE YEARS AND THREATEND TO KILL HER !!!

It´s so sick. Lydie just cannot do something without getting herself and everyone else in trouble. Why didn´t she just let pick up the paintings up when we asked her to do so?

I hereby declare: I NEVER wanted the paintings. I want Lydie to pick up or let pick up her paintings. I never did held this paintings "hostage". I do not do things like that. Lydie did take my videotapes of my movie. That´s her "style". Not mine. I don`t steal other peoples paintings. She can have the paintings whenever she wants as soon as she confirms it is really she behind this lawyer and as soon as the money for storing is paid.

Sincerely Yours,
Michael Huck

Photo above: Copyright 2007 by Jörg Peter. This photo of Lydie had been taken as PR for A Bouquet for a Kill. We have lots of photos from this PR shooting. Jörg is also the DP of A Bouquet for a Kill.

The Laurel and Hardy Horror Christmas Card

The Christmas Card Horror

Lydie showed Santa Monica Court a Merry Christmas card I mailed to her. She told them she felt this was threatening and disturbing that is, Ms Denier is afraid of a "We wish you a Merry Christmas" card with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy!!!
(I did make Stan and Ollie not recognizeable because of copyright laws on this upload). As you remember I offered Lydie a Laurel and Hardy BUSINESS parntership. I was NOT talking about LOVE (as she claimed at Santa Monica Court).

I attached some lines of two Charles Trenet songs, La Route Enchantee and Menilmontant.

It says:

Come with us and you will see
happy mornings and big roads
we will walk to adventure
winter and summer
on a happy road

I am not a poet
but I am blessed to have in my mind
the souvenirs that will never be lost
a winter night
some music
your kind eyes, Lydie
a beautiful story, crazy and poetic
and pathetic
Stan & Ollie

Merry Christmas, Lydie,

Michael

First, please note I wrote to Lydie: Come with US (and not come with me),
US referring to the people who did set up Bouquet and who are still waiting we can
finish it.
I also changed some lines, not using the word roman d´amour (as written by Trenet in his original song)but instead crazy, poetic and pathetic because that is what Lydie is to me, a little bit crazy, very poetic and pathetic like the old Hollywood divas like Hedy Lamarr and Greta Garbo.

All I wanted was to write Lydie some kind words at Christmas, letting her know how unhappy I feel about the whole situation with Bouquet and wishing her nevertheless a Merry Christmas.

At Santa Monica Court she only showed them again half of the mail making it look again very different in sense.

What really scares me is that Deputy Denham and Judge Rosenberg did not get suspicous when someone told them she is afraid of a Laurel & Hardy Christmas card!!!

Sincerely Yours,
Michael Huck

The E-mails of Evil

The e-mails I wrote to Lydie

Lydie Denier claimed I had wrote her terrifying e-mails and told so to Santa Monica Court. She told Deputy Denham nd Judge Rosenberg I wrote her e-mails writing I am in love with her and wanting to be together with her. It´s not true. The e-mails I wrote to her are clearly about the movie we shot together. So I have no other choice to upload more - if not all of those e-mails - to show to everyone what really happened and what I really wrote and how Lydie manipulated truth when she went to Santa Monica Court.

Here are two e-mails I wrote to Lydie after our fight over Bouquet had started:
the first one I wrote her in April around her Birthday on April 15. (I wrote the mail on April, 14).

Decide yourself if this is a terrifying e-mail as Lydie claims.
The same thing with the e-mail I mailed to her in July 2008 asking her again to finish the project we started and return my tapes.

Sincerely Yours,
Michael Huck

The Stalking Files

How does it feel to be accused to be a "S T A L K E R" ?

In late August Lydie Denier told the world I had stalked her and had pulled a gun on her and had threatened to kill her.
It´s not true but how does this affect my life so far?

In Germany: noone really cares. All the people who know me know of course also that Lydie did not tell the truth and all know that Lydie and I shot "A Bouquet for a Kill" together, most people I know already have seen a copy of "A Bouquet for a Kill". Noone who personally knows me actually believed one word of what she told, but of course most people who know me also have met Lydie and me together in the time between February 2007 and May 2007 when Lydie came to Berlin to work with me.

What really makes me happy is that also in the US all the producers and movie people I know and I am in touch with (and some of them have worked with Lydie) did not believe the stalker story (of course also most of them have a copy of "A Bouquet for a Kill or photos of shooting) and even people who never heard of me before wrote comments on websites making fun of Lydie and did not believe her stupid story. She made it to TMZ and "stupid celebreties news" and she was even so P R O U D of this nonsense that she made a link on her website !

So far she found some people at Santa Monica court who gave her this restraining order based on her falsified "evidence" and her lies.
But this will not last forever.
I will make sure till the next AFM EVERY Producer in Hollywood, Immigration and all US authorities, every movie website and every Producers, actors or trade papers will know the truth.

Lydie had her one-week triumph of having me in the news as a crazy stalker. But now for the rest of her life as a human being and as an actress EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE will know that she did accuse me wrongly to be a stalker and that she tried to take over my picture. I wonder if this all was worth it.

If Lydie had not broken her contract with me, I would have let her take the picture to Millenium. Why not? I consider Avi Lerner a great producer. I do not know him but I know people who know him. A producer who is on the board of IFTA assured me Avi Lerner is a good guy. My friend Vonny met him once together with Lydie at Berlin Filmmarket and Vonny was impressed. I know he has made great movies and I would have been glad if he would have produced a bigger US version of Bouquet.
But the way Lydie wanted to do it, just to push me out and take it to Millenium without me? Never.
So what did she achieve?
She went behind my back to Avi Lerner and asked him to buy me out.
I refused.
Lydie had no DVD to go to Cannes.
Lydie had brought over Michael Worth to Germany, asking him to play an important
part in the movie she never finished.
Does that look "professional"? Lydie was in as star A N D director.
It is not professional to leave a movie if you are the director.
And it is not professional to betray your producer and go behind his back to another producer to ask him to buy him out.
What did she achieve?
What does Avi Lerner think of Lydie now?
What does Michael Worth think of Lydie now?
And it is not professional if your take-over attempt fails, to run to Santa Monica Court and accuse your producer to be a crazy fan and a stalker. This is also not clever, it is mean and it is s t u p i d .

I have been one of Lydie´s biggest fan´s b e f o r e I have worked with her. I still consider her a good actress, but I do not want to see her anymore or talk to her for the rest of my life.
I have heard of women accusing someone w r o n g l y as a stalker. I do not know what is going on in their mind or in the mind of Lydie. Lydie is a good actress and she did achieve a lot in Hollywood. Knowing her now I wonder h o w she did achieve surving 20 years in Hollywood.
Most men would now be in trouble as it´s her word against their word.
I am a little bit more lucky: I have 15 hours of outtakes showing me and Lydie on the set of A Bouquet for a Kill. We have hundreds of stills of the shooting taken by the DP Jörg Peter and myself. I have a cast and crew who can confirm I am Not a stalker but the producer of A Bouquet for a Kill.

There is a dark and hopeless Hitchcock movie wih Henry Fonda: The Wrong Man. Fonda is accused of having commited a crime, but he is inoccent. His life is ruined this way.
Lydie tried to ruin and to damage my reputation. I am glad she is not really knowing what she is doing as she is very, very bad in telling lies. If she had been a little bit more clever and if she had said, o.k., I´ve worked with that guy, he was my producer and I did direct and we did not get along and things like that, it would have been very difficult for me to prove what really happened.
But in the moment, she went into Santa Monica court and showed them the F A L S I F I E D Cannae email and did tell them I am NOT a producer but a cazy fan who threatened to kill her, she had lost. It´s so easy to prove it´s a lie.
She got the restraining order and in giving this "news" to TMZ and WENN she tried to damage my reputation, not realizing she actually ruined her own reputation:

From now on everyone will remember Ms Denier not as Tarzan´s Jane but as a starlett who wrongly accused me to be a stalker because I did not let her take over my picture.
I don´t know why she did this. Wouldn´t it be more intelligent to just return my tapes, let me edit our movie and release it? And let the world know that she now also is a director? This could have given her carreer a whole new and different direction. Probably other producers would have let her direct movies.

I also wonder that noone of her so-called friends did talk to her and gave her some good advise like as a director you have to finish a movie ?

I will fight Lydie as long as she will not return my tapes. It is my job as a producer to finish my picture and to release it. Lydie has a contract with me. I will not break this contract and I expect Lydie Denier to deliver the movie she promised to deliver to me.

Sincerely Yours,
Michael Huck

The Take-Over Battle in May 2007

The Battle over A Bouquet for a Kill in May 2007

During May shooting I realized more and more Lydie had planned to push me out of my own project. After completing short version in April Lydie, Roswitha and I have met in a restaurant and we agreed that we are going to shoot a 90 minute version. I wanted to wait with shooting till Cannes Filmfestival was over as we were trying to get more money to do it bigger, but Lydie insisted we had to start as soon as possible with the 90 minute version and she already had talked to Michael Worth her former co-star of Acapulco H.E.A.T. to come over to Germany in early may.
Later Lydie and Roswitha claimed this meeting had never took place and they never agreed to shoot with me a long version, but there are witnesses who can confirm. We met at Lydie´s birthday at a German Freemason´s Lodge to celebrate Lydie´s birthday and Lydie and Roswitha there told everyone we had agreed to shoot the 90 minute version, that Michael Worth will come from Los Angeles and Lydie even told Hans-Jürgen we need to shoot new scenes at his apartment what they finally did in may.

Lydie went back to Paris and I prepared the may shooting in Berlin.
I was shocked when Lydie mailed me a new 48 page version of my original around 100 page script. This was far too short for a 90 minute movie and her re-writes made no sense at all. I discussed this with Michael Worth and he agreed on most of what I said. (I still have all the emails). Michael Worth who is also an experienced producer and I emailed about the questions what camera and technical equipment we are going to use and Lydie went furious when she learend Michael Worth and I discussed script and technics. Lydie had abolutley no knowledge of HD cameras, PAl, NTSC standards, 24p or 25p and Michael Worth knew all about and so I considered it a good idea to discuss this with Michael but Lydie insisted she as a director has to decide who is allowed to talk to whom about what. I am the producer and I do not take orders from directors unless they are Alfred Hitchcock or Lubitsch.

When I did not Greenlight Lydie´s new scriptversion she run amok and started shooting without my permit and Roswitha supported her. Lydie obviously had already made plans to push me out of the project and had talked to Avi Lerner behind my back. First she had told me she wanted Avi Lerner to come in as a co-producer to get additional money to do it better and bigger but I realized she wanted Avi Lerner to come in to buy me out.

She mailed me an email asking me to give her all my receipts and claimed Avi Lerner had asked her to do so. I did not believe her.
She finally admitted she wanted Avi to buy me out and then emailed me a new contract she had wrtiten and wanted me to sign the project over to her. (She had realized she cannot take the project to Mr Lerner as long as I own the copyright).

Lydie wanted me to leave the project and give her all the rights. She wanted only to give me a coproducer´s credit and she even wanted all the writer´s credits for herself, leaving me just a credit "based on an idea by Michael Huck". If you are a little bit familiar with copyright laws you probably know according to US copyright law "ideas" cannot be protected. Nice try, Denier.

The second trap she wrote into that contract was that she has to fully reimbourse me in the event if the long version is sold to American Television. Looks good at first but isn´t if you know that most low budget productions are never sold to television and only distributed on dvd or video. So in this case she could have made lots of money with dvd sales and I would not get one cent IF NOT SOLD TO AMERICAN TELEVISION. I alsow would get nothing according to this conctract if sold to German, French or other television.(However she made a mistake again and did write American television NOT US, so what if sold to Brazil ???) Then there are some clauses like the sum will not exceed $ 5000 . I have spent much more than this sum on the project. And what about Jörg and Vonny who also invested in the movie and cast and crew?
Actually in the worst case neither I nor anyone else besides Lydie would get money. Not a good contract.
Jörg and I set up another contract which made sure everyone involved in the short and long version would get a share of profits in case the long version is made and sold. Lydie had not to pay one cent in advance, only if sold but then everyone would get a share. Lydie refused to sign this contract and I refused to sign hers.

So all the work cast and crew did on this project so far did not get us anywhere.
It is my job as a producer to somehow release this project.

photo: Copyright 2007 by Jörg Peter