Blue-chip German outfit Beta Cinema has taken on international rights to North Face director Philipp Stölz’s next feature film, Goethe!, which comes billed as a “modern pop fairytale” biopic of Germany’s most celebrated writer in the vein of Shakespeare In Love and Amadeus.

Budgeted at $9.5 million, Goethe! stars  Alexander Fehling, Moritz Bleibtreu, Burghart Klaußner, Henry Hübchen and newcomer Miriam Stein.

The story begins in Germany 1772. The young  Johann Goethe (Fehling) is sent by his father (Hübchen) to a sleepy little town to mend his ways after failing his law exams. There he falls in love with a woman (Stein), unaware that she is already engaged to his superior Kestner (Bleibtreu).

Beta Cinema managing director Dirk Schuerhoff commented: “To be involved with Geothe! is so exciting. The film tells such a beautiful, very real, very warm and deeply human story. We are very proud to work on Philipp Stölz’s  next film.”

The film is produced by Christoph Müller (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days) and is currently in post-production. Warner will release it in Germany in the second half of 2010.

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