StudioCanal’s Kinowelt unveils first German titles

StudioCanal’s German unit Kinowelt has boarded its first three German films as part of its mandate to acquire and produce local language product.

Under CEO Wolfgang Braun, the company has come on board Stefan Ruzowitzky’s thriller Braincopy which is being produced by Claussen+Wobke+Putz for German-speaking rights.

Braincopy, sold internationally by Telepool, is the story of a scientist who discovers a formula to allow old and sick people to transfer their brains onto young and healthy bodies.

Kinowelt’s first bona fide co-production is No Sex Is No Option (Kein Sex Ist Auch Keine Losung), a comedy based on Mia Morgowski’s bestseller about a womaniser who falls for a woman who treats him the way he usually treats women. Torsten Wacker (Supersecks) is directing and ZDF is co-financing the film.

Meanwhile, Kinowelt is teaming with production outfit MoreMovies Entertainment on 4,5,6, a history-based comedy in the spirit of Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three which will be directed by Till Hastreiter.

Written by Hastreiter and Marianne Enzensberger and set just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, 4,5,6 is the story of a cynical West Berlin guy posing as a revolutionary from eastern Germany to seduce a supermodel. Florian Gmelch will produce for MoreMovies and Annette Reeker for All-In Production.

“The idea is to find commercial projects principally for the German market,” says Braun, a veteran who ran Disney’s German office for many years before joining Kinowelt. “The intention is to make all the money back in Germany but some of the films will have an audience in other countries.” StudioCanal will handle international sales on the in-house productions.

Kinowelt plans to release 20 films a year, 25-30% of which will be German productions. Titles on the 2010 release slate include The Crazies(pictured), Killers, Saw 7 3D, Piranha 3D and Dear John as well as StudioCanal-sourced pictures like Leap Year, The Last Exorcism and The Tourist.