Falcom, Le Pacte come on board for animated Moon Man

Falcom Media has acquired German theatrical and DVD rights to Stephan Schesch’s adaptation of Tomi Ungerer’s children’s classic Moon Man (Der Mondmann). The animated feature is set to be released in cinemas in November 2011 to coincide with the author’s 80th birthday.

Producer-director Schesch’s Berlin-based company Schesch Filmkreation has attracted France’s Le Pacte as co-producer, French theatrical distributor and world sales agent for the classical family animation film which also has Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon, the makers of the Oscar-nominated The Secret Of Kells, onboard as a co-producer.

Katharina Thalbach, Ulrich Tukur and Ulrich Noethen are among the voice actors recruited for the adaptation which Schesch has written with Ralph Martin (Lilly The Witch) and in close consultation with Ungerer himself. The main phase of production in Germany, France and Ireland will begin from mid-2010.

A classic story examining the themes of loneliness, difference, understanding and acceptance, Moon Man was written and illustrated by Ungerer in 1967 at the height of the space race when he was living in New York. 

This project by Schesch is his second adaptation of one of Ungerer’s classic books after producing The Three Robbers (Die drei Räuber) in 2007 for Animation X, a joint venture by X-Filme Creative Pool and David Groenewold’s Promedium.

At the time, The Three Robbers had been the first feature film adaptation of any of Ungerer’s works to be realised.

Meanwhile, this autumn will see Falcom releasing another local -grown animation feature in German cinemas: Das Sandmännchen – Abenteuer im Traumland which will be the opening film at Munich’s Kinderfilmfest at the end of June.