Losers
Feature film written/directed by Jeremy Tarr

Tarr's legal representation, found through Los Angeles court records, is now: James T. Hudson, Esq. (SBN 43436)
35590 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2000
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Phone: (213) 386-2747
Fax: (213) 386-3916

This lawyer represented the Tarrs in a dispute between landlord and tenants (Tarrs). Tarrs trying to get some cash for alleged mold, etc.

Michale Tarr's email is Tarr.Michael@gmail.com
Dale Sternberg's email is Dale-Sternberg@googlemail.com

Michael has another company now, solar panels, which is a type of company known for being rife with scammers.

Dale Sternberg has a business called The Firm Search LLC
http://www.thefirmsearch.com/
11720 Bellagio Road, #202, Los Angeles, CA 90049
(310) 857-6333
dale@thefirmsearch.com
Linked-In page:http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dale-sternberg/5/868/15a

See segments of "Losers", which Jeremy no longer claims he directed, also called "The Infamous Day After Tomorrow", on You Tube -- parts one and two.

For those of you who want to be listed among the aggrieved parties to the Family Tarr or get the latest info on them, here's a website with info:
The Michael Tarr Warning site.

By the way, Michael Tarr is a common name. Be sure you don't blackball the wrong one. For instance there's a Mich E A Tarr in Phoenix who may be feeling the brunt of bad Tarr karma. Check out his letter on the bottom of this page. Also, Michael Raymond Tarr of Playa Vista, CA, born in 1975, is NOT this Tarr.

Preparing for the scene in which K.H. returns home to me after just having murdered a hapless student/prostitute because she was going to tattle on him to the Dean.

Often, the shoot would be interrupted by local newspaper reporters who wanted to interview the pubescent director who was making his first feature film. This was going to blow the lid off the wunderkind concept. Fifteen years old and directing a feature about very adult topics he, himself, had written. No one asked him, "What do you know about prostitution, university life in front of and behind the teacher's desk, 7-year-long relationships between middle aged virgins, abuse and murder of women?" I guess his dad didn't oversee his television viewing.

Actors in San Francisco don't ask for much. We are often willing to work for free, and do the very best we can in our craft without complaint. In return, we get fed while working (and that's not why we do it), and are promised a copy of the film on videotape or DVD so that we can develop our demo reel or at least have some proof that we did, in fact, participate in a film project. Jeremy and his dad had us all sign contracts, of which we never received a copy. We were promised we'd get a copy of the film when it was done.

Here is where tenacity is sometimes sorely tested. Kudos to Karl-Heinz who was finally able to get his copy of the film after a year of tracking the Tarrs down after they moved back to L.A. He called and wrote numerous times and not only received a copy of the film, but they gave him a desk and told him it once belonged to Stewart Granger. That's it for all repayment to anyone on this film.

After several years, I heard from the Tarrs, through their attorney. They are willing to give me a copy of the film if I clean up this site..... or else! I didn't clean up this site; they didn't send me a copy of the movie (it wasn't in the contract).

Carl-Heinz Teuber is one of the most utilized actors
in the Bay Area - a well deserved position.

I count myself lucky in that working in this film didn't cost me anything except long hard hours of memorizing, rehearsing, endless improvisations, and shooting days. Not all the actors and crew were as fortunate as myself.

Good buddy Bruce Goodchild not only got the part of the College Dean who browbeats Karl Heinz into frantic, ill-advised action, but he was engaged to be the production photographer. Bruce laid out a few hundred dollars in film for the project and naively gave the photos to Michael Tarr with an invoice.

The photos were gratefully accepted, no money was ever paid for the agreed-upon fee for photographic work and costs of film and processing. And his part was cut to just a couple of out-of-focus seconds.

Years ago, I heard that Jeremey was to direct his second film, "Living on Neon Dreams," in England, no, Germany, no, South Africa, no, Budapest. The press was waiting for his appearance in Cape Town for more interviews, but he never showed. He was in his mid-20's at the time. As the time for shooting approached and passed, still no Jeremy. I have been contacted by many people looking for the Tarrs: a journalist in South Africa as well as many creditors. The Tarrs have moved from South Africa to London to Germany to Budapest, Hungary, and now, courageously, California again. This second film, once claimed in several sites as his first film, was never made. It should be noted that MGM has no connection with Living Neon Dreams, even though the Tarrs claimed connection with this companyh while courting backers. Losers does not appear anywhere but here and YouTuibe as having ever existed.

Many years have passed since this film was shot. But amazingly, I got an email from Jeremy Tarr's mother, Dale, on 10/8/04. And here it is, unedited.

Dear Bonnie,
We have become aware of your website and the information you have on it about "Losers". My suggestion would be that you remove your inflammatory comments since your attacking of a then 15 year old reflects only negatively upon yourself. You read the script and met the writer director prior to your involvement. You're opening yourself up to libel and slander and it would be in everyone's best interest if you corrected this so we don't have to go that route. We will check the website to make certain this is taken care of. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dale Tarr
daleinberlin@hotmail.com

And my response:

Hi Dale,
So nice to hear from you. Not only did I read the script, I signed a contract. And part of that contract was to get a copy of the film. Now that you are in contact with me, after all these years, I expect you will have that then-15 year old fulfill his obligation. By the way, Bruce Goodchild is still patiently awaiting the fulfilling of your then-15 year old son and his producer/father's obligation to pay him for costs and salary for photographs shot on the set. He also would like a copy of the film he first read and then acted in, though, what was left of his part was only a fraction of what he read.
You are not the only person who has responded to the site. I've gotten several emails from others who had worked with Michael in the past and suffered worse experiences. They are still trying to track him down. I was lucky; I just didn't get the one small payment promised me - a copy of the film I worked so hard for. Having read the script, I never expected deferred payment. For this project, I worked for the experience and a copy of my performance. By the way, all the actors were promised copies of the contracts we signed. Only Karl Heinz got a copy.
Since you're checking the website to make sure this will be taken care of, I'll add these emails. Wouldn't want to mislead anyone.
Libel suit, that would be interesting. Warmest regards to you and yours,
Bonnie Steiger

Seems the Tarrs have a much more colorful life than just the production of "Losers." Many have worked for, and then tried to find the Tarrs reegarding payment, and this is a collection of info on their past location. The latest info is that they have unashamedly retuned yet again to Southern Cal.

Dated 2/15/07 (no longer there)
"I'm going to keep anonymous, but here's the latest piece of the bullshit pie. And please could you post it on your page so other people from the industry can be made aware as he's ACTUALLY got to the point now where he's messing with people lives....

"The Budapest address was correct. In fact, Micheal had a whole bunch of people over to start on production as people were being flown from all over the world. Again, not a single soul was being paid. It was 'we're just waiting for a deal to close.' Everyone could eat lavishly in this decadent hotel which obviously in the end was left with a debt of over $200,000 when I left... probably more as time amassed. Also, at the time of leaving, it became obvious that there were production crew who were still working under the pretense of getting paid: PR executives, Line Producers, Accountants, Digital Artists, Admin....hundreds of thousands of dollars...
"From what I hear, he was kicked out of the Hotel just before Christmas 2007 for....you guessed it....not paying....resulting, in my mind, in a lot of people going home after working months in Budapest unpaid. And after some enquiring, I found that this was true and he left a certain number of people now in their own amount of debt.
"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been told under good authority that Micheal is now back in San Fransisco setting up more 'deals' to pay everyone and take a new approach to financing this so called movie. I've been in this game for years and my advice is that if you hear the name 'Tarr,' make sure you get paid in full at the start; if not....WALK AWAY.
The only connection this film has to Wonderland is that Wonderland is where poor Mr Tarr lives."

I have deleted the old info on South Africa, Berlin, Hungary, England, Germany....

Copied this from Wikipedia.org on 9/18/06, since deleted....

"Living Neon Dreams is a film written and directed by Jeremy Tarr. It is a modern adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. The film has been in the planning stages since at least 2005 but is now in pre-production and set for a 2007 release. It was due to star Marilyn Manson but the delays meant he ended up leaving for another Alice-based production, Phantasmagoria. The project has acquired a certain degree of notoriety having over the years hired, and then failed to pay, a large number of people, who have now become disgruntled creditors. For this reason alone, sadly it is unlikely never to hit the screen."

Almost all postings about this film have been deleted and it has never been shot. - editor.

A letter from a person who dealt with the Tarrs:

"I had to laugh when I did a websearch for Michael Tarr and found your site today-- classic! Did you ever do a paper trail on this guy before he did his shoot in San Francisco-- the house in Malibu and the shipping company and the chapter 7 bankruptcy before he hit town- lol, I still have all that stuff somewhere. I remember calling him on it when he was trying to get that film out of our lab (his story was "the bank loan will clear tomorrow-- distribs need the film today, blah, blah, blah)-- I still have the enraged fax he sent me shortly after changing his entire position-- LOL
"I think he was my all time favorite con to pass thru town, and it wouldn't surprise me if he eventually does make it in Hollywood somehow.. I felt sorry for his kid, though. What's with his wife and that email~ holy shit you'd think she'd have figured it out by now-- classic!

"He never got the film out of the lab here-- I recall getting involved with our lab manager when he kept pushing us to release a print, but hadn't come through with any money. I ran a D&B on he and Mrs. T, and found they were fresh off a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in So Cal, which was, errrr.... a bit different than the story he was giving us-- might have made it a wee bit tough to get that ol' bank loan he said was coming in for junior's film "any day now". Dunn and Bradstreet supplied me with copies of his Chapter 7 filing, and I even went as far as to speak w Terri Lucoff and some others he had burned down South before leaving his creditors holding the bag.
"You can post whatever you want on your site, and if his "cadre of high powered Hollywood lawyers" come calling on you to shut the site down, give them a tip from me-- be sure to work on retainer! Also tell that little fuckin' weasel I've got a can of ass-whoop with his name on it if he ever slithers back this way again!"

Rob Monaco
Monaco Digital Film Labs

From a former Associate:

Tarr's tricks go back a lot further than 7 years... try two decades!
Here is a time line of events and incidents as well as I recall them, FYI.

I met Michael Tarr back in the late 70's when he was a struggling producer who sold his Cleveland, Ohio TV commercial production company to come out here to "Hollywood" to sell a feature length, sci-fi thriller, "Deception" that he had made back in Ohio.

I got involved helping him market his film but despite numerous screenings and a very disjointed story line (and stunning production values), the film never found a distributor. Tarr got a job a Paramount for an on-the-lot producer. That job lasted about a year.

Tarr and his wife, Dayle then were trying to write and develop feature film projects but nothing ever got off the ground. He, his wife and/or I would work on screenplays (one of which was "Living Neon Dreams") and Michael would try to raise money to make presentations to distributors and potential investors. I 'd work on the budgets and advertising and PR -- of course all this was sweat equity inasmuch as we were "partners" on the projects and my money would come when the projects went into production. Although some of his proposals received some attention from second tier distributors, most wound up going into turnaround, being dropped or vanishing along with any money invested in them.

Tarr and a couple of partners, in the early 80's, started a film production house based in West Los Angeles It was one of the first of a few companies to specialize in CGI and computer graphics for the TV commercial industry. Tarr and his partners started feuding. Michael was literally "locked out" of the company he helped start. The Tarrs quickly ran into financial problems, sold their newly purchased Santa Monica house and retreated back to Akron, Ohio to regroup with the help of his and Dayle's families. I believe the Tarrs filed bankruptcy. In the meantime the CGI production company which was heavily in debt, closed.

About a year later, the Tarrs along with their young son, Jeremy, came back to LA. The same pattern of trying to solicit money for film projects that never seemed to get off the ground ensued. One of the projects he and I worked on again was "Living (in) Neon Dreams."

Money was tight and in addition to working for free on the promise of being paid down the road, I helped out by personally loaning Tarr about $3200 in the mid 1980's -- of which none has ever been paid back. During this time, Tarr borrowed money from all his friends -- most, if any, were also never paid back. Projects came and projects fell flat. Tarr found money and it all vanished. In the meantime, as broke as the Tarrs said they were, they moved onto a rented horse ranch in ritzy Malibu.

It was about this time that one of his projects looked like it was going forward. A budget was set, professional actors (including some well known names) were hired, crews and the rest of the cast, locations were scouted, sets built, costumes were rented and truckloads of equipment were also leased. But the day before shooting, the whole project fell through. (Sound familiar???). Of course nobody was paid and a couple of the actors filed a grievance with SAG and the Producers Guild which blacklisted Tarr's production company.

A script that I had written on contract for Michael Tarr, years earlier, was made into a film, "Slipstream" (1989) in England. My deal was $500 in cash and a percentage of the sale price of the script or a percentage of the net if Tarr made the film. Tarr was allegedly paid by the English production company for the script but Tarr conveniently forgot to pay his old partner a dime when he received payment.
By this time, I was no longer involved with the Tarrs.

The Tarrs packed up and left for San Francisco where he was supposed to start a company that was going to make interactive video games. Things didn't work so the family moved back to Malibu and rented a condo with a view of the ocean.

I was still being stalled on the money he owed me. I'm assuming that he was still "putting together deals" which is how his family could afford a tony life style in Malibu. Tarr's son, Jeremy graduated from Malibu High School and went to Chapman College in Orange, CA to study film. Despite the PR, Jeremy is no more "English" than I am. His sole directing experience as far as I know is student films.

By the late 1990s I heard that the Tarrs moved to London and he had an office on Wardour Street in Soho. Again the same pattern: Investors and money were lined up, presentations and pitches were made, projects were supposedly OK'd, the Tarrs would start preproduction then they would fall through, wiping out everyone's investment -- except the Tarrs who somehow usually came out OK.

By the early 2000's, "Neon Dreams" was still around as a potential project. Supposedly there were investors in Germany and South Africa. "Living in Neon Dreams" turned up on the IMDB web data base and numerous sci-fi and film fan web sites described as a modernized version of the Alice in Wonderland story. (You can still find it listed on some websites. Google: "Living in Neon Dreams" and see how much stuff actually still comes up.) Shock rocker, Marilyn Manson was reportedly involved at one point according to numerous websites along with Nastassja Kinski, John Rhys-Davies, Thomas Kretschmann, Alan Cumming, Daryl Hannah, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Vardalos and A.J. Cook at one time or another in this project's contorted evolution.

Tarr apprently moved his base of operation from London to Hungary. "Neon Dreams was still alive but fliundering, more cast changes (Intersting to see if any of those people were paid or were stiffed) were announced.Then new press information appeared on the Internet and fan websites that indicated Tarr finally had financing and distribution lined up. For the last four or five years Tarr claimed, in widely distributed publicity materials posted on the various movie websites on the Internet, that the movie "Living Neon Dreams" was being distributed by MGM.
I've talked to attorneys who work with the studio brass and development people at MGM. They tell me "There never has been nor ever was a deal to distribute any film by Michael and Jeremy Tarr OR with the title or similar title to 'Living in Neon Dreams.' "

As I understand it, the project collapsed just before or on the first day of production and the Tarrs bailed out of Hungary leaving behind hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts and lots of unpaid people and suppliers, according to on-line and motion picture industry news sources. The latest word is that they are back IN Santa Monica or Malibu -- and probably running the same dodgy proposals which by this time have all the appearance of being scams.

Chances of any of Tarr's "victims" getting their money back is zero.

The best way to handle him is to get the word out to anyone in "the business" to check him and his credit out very closely."

Signed. Left high and dry in Santa Monica
Bill Bauer

And another

Hi
I am a London-based below-the-line agent, and earlier this year filed a claim in the London County Court against Michael Tarr personally (knowing that his limited company is worthless) on behalf of one of the several clients of mine who are owed money by this guy.

A date was set, but he didn't show up in court that day. Instead, he sent a fax to the court, allegedly from Hungary, protesting his innocence.

Nonetheless, and under the rules of UK county courts, in his absence I asked for and obtained judgement against him.

Coming out of the court building, I thought I'd try calling him on his UK mobile phone. If it had a 'foreign' ringing tone, then perhaps he truly was in Hungary. But I got the standard UK ring tone, so he really was in the UK all the time, and had lied in a sworn statement to the court.

A few weeks later, the court sent bailiffs to both his office and home addresses in London. Of course, he had fled.

As someone else rightly said about the family Tarr, they are a bunch of professional grifters. They're not fazed by the law, or courts, or tax authorities, or possibly even the police. They have vanished from view, their wretched film-that-never-was has disappeared from IMDB, but the world has almost certainly not seen the last of them.

The one satisfaction that I can draw is that a county court judgement of this nature against a person in the UK remains on file forever, so he'll not be able to raise finance, open a bank account, get a credit card or do any similar thing in the UK until this is settled.

James Little

Have a great day.

-Mike