UFA Cinema partners for first time with Warner Bros.

UFA Cinema is partnering with Warner Bros. Pictures Germany for the first time to handle the theatrical and home entertainment releases in German speaking territories of one of its productions.

The comedy Der Perfekte Mann (working title) is being directed by Vanessa Jopp from a script by Jane Ainscough and stars Benno Fürmann [pictured] as a moderately successful TV presenter who is finally forced to behave like an adult and appreciate the meaning of life when he has an unexpected visit from his young nephew played by Louis Hofmann.

Shooting started this week in Cologne and will continue in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg until the beginning of September on the co-production with ARD Degeto.

The distribution deal with Warner Bros. for Der Perfekte Mann does not impinge on the strategic distribution partnership which UFA Cinema struck in 2008 with Universal Pictures International Germany (UPI) for the theatrical and home entertainment release of its films in German-speaking territories.

This particular partnership runs until the end of 2012 and is now covering another of UFA Cinema’s current productions, Hanni & Nanni 2, directed by Julia von Heinz from a screenplay by Jane Ainscough and Christoph Silber, which began shooting in Berlin and Schloss Faber-Castell near Nuremberg on July 19.

The co-production with Hermann Florin’s Feine Filme and broadcaster ZDF will be distributed by UPI in cooperation with UFA Cinema in summer 2012.

Meanwhile, following its collaboration with Bavaria Pictures as both co-producer and distributor on the Thomas Mann adaptation Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family, Warner Bros. has now come onboard another lavish costume drama revolving around the life of the Bavarian king Ludwig II by the Munich-based company.

Peter Sehr and Marie Noelle’s Ludwig II began shooting last week on the shores of the Starnberger See near Munich with the Romanian-born actor Sabin Tambrea as the young, idealistic Ludwig heading an impressive cast boasting the crème de la crème of German actors, including Sebastian Schipper (as an older Ludwig), Hannah Herzsprung (as Sisi), Edgar Selge (Richard Wagner), and Uwe Ochsenknecht (Prince Luitpold).

Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany is co-producing along with Austria’s DOR-Film, Rolize, B.A. Produktion, ARD Degeto and the broadcasters BR, WDR, SWR and ORF, and the US major’s German distribution arm Warner Bros. Pictures Germany is set to release the finished film in German and Austrian cinemas in December 2012.

Shooting continues until mid-November at such original locations as Schloss Neuschwanstein, Schloss Linderhof, Schloss Herrenchiemsee, as well as throughout Austria and at the Bavaria Film Studios outside of Munich.