Tue, 2025-Apr-29 10:44 (BST)
Hi all. I think I might have landed a potential buyer for one of my projects but I'm seeing a lot of red flags. A few days ago, german actor Udo Kier messaged me on Stage 32 saying he was interested in my work and offered to refer me to his management group to potentially greenlight one of my projects. Cut to this morning, I recieve a message from them saying they are interested, but I would need to schedule a flight to Hawaii to be able to sit down and meet with members of the his board to discuss the project. Is this a normal practice in getting scripts optioned/sold or am i being scammed? They didnt ask for any of my credit card details or personal info but the whole thing just seems a little odd.
I don't think anything is normal or standard when buying or selling a script, but in your case, my counteroffer would be an online meeting. All the best.
To me - it's highly unlikely that this is legit. A real opportunity would involve:
If this were a genuine offer from Udo Kier’s team (who I think is in his 80s now), they’d likely have a Los Angeles-based meeting or virtual discussion, and their company would have a traceable industry presence. Is this a company you can find on IMDB for example?
ADDENDUM - Just in case you didn't have access to Udo's info - I have added it below. Note his Theatrical agent is in Germany, his Manager is in L.A. so a Hawaii meet site sure sounds odd
Contacts
Edit
Direct Contact
Udo Kier
Talent Agent Theatrical
Players Agentur Management
players.de
Sophienstrasse 21
Berlin 10178
Germany
See map (bing.com)
Manager
Richard Schwartz Management
Representatives (1)
Richard Schwartz
Thanks Dave. I had a bad feeling about this from the start. I found no trace of the company, so, yeah, likely a scam. I'll do what I can to block him from Stage 32, but in glad i didnt give him any personal info.
Very strange and very scammy feeling. Sadly, there's been a spate of this on Stage 32 recently.
You probably won't have to block him, S32 will end up suspending that account. Whoever it is steals a legit profile off IMDB and spams the S32 people. It's happened to me several times and I don't know what their end game is. But I ignore it and eventually, you'll see that the account has been blocked/suspended.
Praying you get a real person wanting your script soon!
My pleasure. Joshua
Yeah, S32 are good at dealing with this typically, and I don't really see how they can stop it either. People just need to be more aware. I must have seen a dozen posts about the same issue in the past six months or so.
I reported him to Stage 32 a couple of weeks ago - I got the same thing - loved my new script, I had a couple of back and forths (l had never heard of him before - looked him up -- famous actor - red flag 1) then I got the "refer you to my management" which also happened to be his own personal gmail. So, I reported to Stage 32 - I knew the next thing was to ask for money to get things rolling. The REAL Udo lives in Palm Springs and is not in the management business.
S32 could do with putting a warning within the header of the messaging system or something like that. Policing this is impossible, and it's really up to the membership to heighten their awareness. That said, if someone is getting scammed at this level, I don't see them surviving the industry.
Sorry to hear about that Jerry. And yes, CJ i agree with you. There really should be some warning flags on Stage 32 to prevent this from happening again
There are a few dodgy characters on S32. I came across a producer who had a solid record on IMDB but was trying to scam screenwriters into paying him. I called him out on it and a few weeks later he'd been suspended.
Thanks, Joshua -- after a while it only takes a message or two to realize all is not what it seems.
True, CJ... I reported this clown to Stage 32 and so far, he's still up and running. Last month I was invited to become a moderator on Stage 32 and I politely turned it down as I am not in there every day, and I just have too many projects at the moment... wondering if I made the right choice!
Is being a moderator still a paid role? The demands on posting content is like having a second job.
There was a $100. monthly credit for their educational services, and access to a private lounge with other moderators... and the job required daily check ins; I mean, it would be fine and maybe fun if I wasn't so busy; but at this point I need to put 100% of my time into writing and selling. I'm a laser-focus kinda guy... but it would have been nice to shine a spotlight on whoever it is impersonating Udo.
$100pm credit is a pretty good deal for someone who's already on there all day. It was $50pm real money when I was offered it about a decade ago, but you were expected to make a lot of posts to try and start conversations. Moderator didn't really cover it. They pay pros to go in and post once a month or so. That's a pretty good gig.