By Amber Countryman, Sumner Newscow – Wellington’s Christopher Ty German is one of four actors in the independent film Obtuse. German is playing Dead Guy, who is literally dead throughout most of the movie.

Obtuse will be showing Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m., at the Wellington Regent Theatre just before the 30-year anniversary of Empire Records. Tickets are $5 each, and many cast and crew members will be making an appearance.

Ty German lives in Wellington and does movie reviews on Facebook for the Regent Theater in his spare time.

“I answered an ad on Facebook and auditioned for the role of Jimmy,” German said. “I messed up my audition. They were kind enough to call and tell me that I did not get the part. As a joke, I said ‘Well, if you need someone to play the dead guy, let me know!’ I hung up, and they called me back a few minutes later, asking if I was serious about playing the role of Dead Guy. I was! I saw the potential and humor in playing the role and I was excited to play it.”

In 2018, German played the part of Matthew Cho in the movie Moonlight Soul, which was filmed in Colorado. It played at many film festivals, but has never been released on streaming TV or DVD. Unfortunately, German’s scenes were deleted in the final cut.

German signed with M&I Models in 2016 and trained to be a model for a year. 

“I was told by modeling agencies I was too short to be a model, and to switch to acting,” German said. “I did that in December and have been acting since.”

Obtuse is an offbeat dark comedy, telling the story of two roommates who are suddenly stuck with a dead body and have no idea what to do about it. Their half-hearted attempts to cover it up become messier as the story unfolds. An overbearing, emotionally unstable cop inserts himself into their lives, making it harder and harder to cover it up. After a lot of panic and absurdity, the only way forward seems to be them embracing their obliviousness.

German, middle, plays the “Dead Guy.”

The cast includes Joey Harrell as Jimmy, Josiah Thibodeau, the film’s writer and director, as Mark, Chris Maslen as the unhinged Officer Duncan, and Christopher “Ty” German as the lifeless houseguest, known as Dead Guy. 

“Each actor leaned fully into the ridiculousness of their character, and I think audiences will really feel that energy on screen,” Thibodeau said. “As the title suggests, every character embodies being a little….obtuse.”

Thibodeau wrote the script for Obtuse in 2012 while living in Los Angeles, Calif., planning to film it with some actor friends.

“Life brought me back to Wichita before I could make that happen,” Thibodeau said. “After a few years here, I met Chris Maslen and immediately knew he’d be perfect for the part of Officer Duncan. That connection brought everything to life.”

Ty German with the Obtuse cast.

Thibodeau has been experimenting with short films since 2011, and got the idea for Obtuse while working at a Starbucks in Los Angeles.

“We had several police officers as regulars, and one in particular was this big, friendly, larger-than-life presence,” Thibodeau said. “He wasn’t anything like the officer in the film, but it got me wondering: what if you had a boisterous, yet completely oblivious, insensitive cop, thrown into a simulation with two hapless roommates panicking over something that never should have happened?”

Soon after this, he wrote the first draft, and rewrote it several times before the timing and cast finally came together.

“After meeting Chris, I knew I had the right lead to really anchor this one,” he said. “His presence gave me the push to move forward and make the story a reality. Our producer, director of photography and I had already completed a couple other short films here in Wichita, so this was the next logical step.”

Chris Maslen plays the unhinged Officer Duncan, a borderline sociopath. 

“He is a pathological liar who makes up facts, figures, statistics, and stories to sound impressive or assert dominance over others,” Maslen said. “Underneath all of that, however, is this desperate need to be loved and accepted. So it was a really bipolar mish-mash of brutish pigheadedness and endearing vulnerability that was incredibly fun to explore during the shoot.”

Maslen has played parts in a few obscure Indie films, A Bit of Bad Luck, starring Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Twister), and Conversations with God, starring Henry Czerny (Mission: Impossible, Clear and Present Danger, Ready or Not, Scream V). He has also performed in various YouTube videos and comedy shorts that he co-produced, wrote or starred in. 

“Nothing to write home about really, but I’m proud of the projects that I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of,” Maslen said.