Len Kloosman(1938-2019)
- Producer
- Writer
Born in South Africa, Kloosman is an only child. As a result of his father (consulting engineer) being transferred to various factories, he attended five different primary schools in as many years. His high school years were spent at Dale College in King Williams Town where he matriculated in 1956. Len studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and qualified in 1964. His intern years were served at the blacks only Baragwanath Hospital on the outskirts of Soweto. On completing his intern year he married and served as Casualty Officer at the Germiston General Hospital for a year before moving to the gold mining town of Stilfontein to take up general practice. Divorced two years later, he joined an import/export company. His brief of medical sales resulted in his travelling extensively through Rhodesia, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana and Zaire over the next year. He returned to general practice in the town of Krugersdorp where he ran two separate consulting rooms (befitting the apartheid laws, one for whites and one for blacks). Fluent in both English and Afrikaans, he entered politics partaking in the 1974 general election. Though not winning the seat, he reduced the (Apartheid) National Party majority substantially. That same year he obtained a Master's degree in medicine from the University of Pretoria. It was at this time that he became acquainted with high-ranking military and political figures in his neighborhood, including the State Vice President. Through these associations he met one of the protagonists in the story. Whilst in Angola, he realized that the solution to South Africa's problems was not a military one but primarily a political one. Australia seemed to offer the best home from home and so it was that he migrated there in 1978 and became naturalized three years later. Today the writer lives in Sydney and is still actively engaged in general practice.
His first novel, Task Force Retriever - Out of Angola, based on his experiences, proved to be a best-seller through Amazon in the adult/war/history genre in 2012. Sales of the hard copy version ceased when the local publishers, BookPal went into receivership and ceased trading. In 2014, veteran producer Terence E. Groves of Maximfilms picked up the film rights to the book and tapped award-winning screenwriter Dax Phelan ("Jasmine") to pen the adaptation and collaborate with Kloosman in the development of a proposed trilogy featuring Tony Harrington as the recurring hero. Kloosman is at work on the second installment, Task Force Retriever - Out of Botswana, which is scheduled for release in 2019.
In 2015, Kloosman made his first foray into independent film producing when he served as Associate Producer under Frank Marshall ("Jurassic World") on Orson Welles's long-awaited final film, "The Other Side of the Wind." The film had its world premiere at the 75th Venice Film Festival where it opened to strong reviews. The film was released theatrically by Netflix on November 2, 2018 and became an instant awards-season contender. In December 2018, the film appeared on over a dozen year-end "Top 10" lists (e.g., Film Comment, The Hollywood Reporter, The LA Times, Vanity Fair). In January 2019, the film received the prestigious and rarely given William K. Everson Film History Award from the National Board of Review and the Film Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics.
In addition to putting the finishing touches on Botswana, Kloosman is serving as Executive Producer of Phelan's sophomore feature film, "Kirkwood," which is in preproduction. He divides his time between Sydney and Los Angeles.
His first novel, Task Force Retriever - Out of Angola, based on his experiences, proved to be a best-seller through Amazon in the adult/war/history genre in 2012. Sales of the hard copy version ceased when the local publishers, BookPal went into receivership and ceased trading. In 2014, veteran producer Terence E. Groves of Maximfilms picked up the film rights to the book and tapped award-winning screenwriter Dax Phelan ("Jasmine") to pen the adaptation and collaborate with Kloosman in the development of a proposed trilogy featuring Tony Harrington as the recurring hero. Kloosman is at work on the second installment, Task Force Retriever - Out of Botswana, which is scheduled for release in 2019.
In 2015, Kloosman made his first foray into independent film producing when he served as Associate Producer under Frank Marshall ("Jurassic World") on Orson Welles's long-awaited final film, "The Other Side of the Wind." The film had its world premiere at the 75th Venice Film Festival where it opened to strong reviews. The film was released theatrically by Netflix on November 2, 2018 and became an instant awards-season contender. In December 2018, the film appeared on over a dozen year-end "Top 10" lists (e.g., Film Comment, The Hollywood Reporter, The LA Times, Vanity Fair). In January 2019, the film received the prestigious and rarely given William K. Everson Film History Award from the National Board of Review and the Film Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics.
In addition to putting the finishing touches on Botswana, Kloosman is serving as Executive Producer of Phelan's sophomore feature film, "Kirkwood," which is in preproduction. He divides his time between Sydney and Los Angeles.