04/10/2006

Since Monday, the Romanian town of Sibiu has been home to the production of Krabat, an adaptation by Marco Kreuzpaintner of Otfried Preußler’s bestseller (based on a 17th century legend).

Producer duo Jakob Claussen and Thomas Wöbke (Anatomy, Play it Loud!) have had rights to the film since the start of 2003, but first considered asking Hans-Christian Schmid (Requiem [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
interview: Sandra Hueller
film profile]) to be director, whose films Crazy and Distant Lights were produced by Claussen and Wöbke.

Kreuzpaintner, 29, who was assistant to Edgar Reitz and has directed August Diehl, has already proven his talent on several occasions, with the nomination of his debut feature (Ganz und gar, 2002) for the Max Ophüls Prize and the recent The Cloud [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (which he scripted).

As part of this new collaboration with Claussen and Wöbke (producers of Summer Storm [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), he is making a fantasy about a 14 year-old boy who starts to experiment with black magic.

A Krabat Filmproduktion and Seven Pictures Film co-production, the €8m film will star David Kross (Tough Enough [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Daniel Brühl (Good Bye, Lenin! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Wolfgang Becker
film profile]), Christian Redl (Downfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bernd Eichinger
interview: Joachim Fest
interview: Oliver Hirschbiegel
film profile]), Robert Stadlober (Summer Storm) and Paula Kalenberg (The Cloud).

The film also was the subject of an agreement between the producer duo and 20th Century Fox Germany, granting the distributor rights to five films over three years and perhaps more.

After Romania, the crew will return to Germany (North-Rhine Westphalia) and then travel to Baden-Württemberg.

(Translated from French)