StudioCanal swoops on Hirschbiegel drama

StudioCanal has swooped on UK and Ireland rights to Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel’s drama 13 Minutes following a screening of the film’s first promo by Beta Cinema.

The film tells the story of resistance fighter Georg Elser who tried to assassinate Hitler in Munich in1939.

Christian Friedel (The White Ribbon), Katharina Schüttler (Generation War) and Burghart Klaußner (The White Ribbon) star in the drama, currently in post-production.

The deal was brokered by StudioCanal’s head of UK acquisitions, Alison Meese, and Beta Cinema’s EVP acquisitions, sales and marketing, Thorsten Ritter.

“We are excited to see the power house StudioCanal get behind the film in the UK and Ireland. Their passion to secure this title speaks volumes about the passion they will bring to the release. I am happy to see Oliver Hirschbiegel and this riveting film in most dedicated hands”, Beta Cinema’s Thorsten Ritter told Screen.

“We’re delighted to be working with Beta on 13 Minutes and look forward to bringing this fascinating and moving true story to the big screen in the UK,” said Meese.

13 Minutes charts Elser’s early years in the Swabian Alps - when National Socialism arrived in his hometown - to his last days at the Dachau concentration camp, where he was killed shortly before the end of the war at the command of Hitler himself.