Daniel Bruhl will direct All Quiet On The Western Front star Felix Kammerer in tennis film Break, for The Ink Factory, Marc Platt Productions and All Quiet… producers Amusement Park and Edward Berger.
Kammerer will play Gottfried von Cramm, a German tennis champion whose career was set against the rise of the Third Reich in 1930s Germany. The film is adapted by Hossein Amini from Marshall Jon Fisher’s A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played.
The film will be in both German and English language. Fifth Season will handle US sales on the title.
Edward Berger will produce for Nine Hours with Malte Grunert for Amusement Park, reuniting after their collaboration on Berger’s All Quiet… which won four Oscars including best international feature film. Marc Platt and Adam Siegel are also producing for La La Land producers Marc Platt Productions, with London- and LA-based independent studio The Ink Factory.
Executive producers are Joe Tsai and Arthur Wang for 127 Wall Productions. Production dates are unconfirmed at the time of writing.
“Gottfried’s life offers a thrilling prism to look at the history of Europe on the cusp of war – but more than that, it is the story of a deeply personal moral conflict and a dangerous romance – and the life-and-death stakes of greatest tennis match ever played,” said a statement from The Ink Factory’s Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell.
Grunert described the story of von Cramm as “one of personal heroism displayed with unassuming elegance. At a time when the freedom and liberty we enjoy are once again under threat from rising nationalism and far right politics, it feels as timely as ever.”
“From a contemporary perspective, the extraordinary story of Gottfried von Cramm is one that demands to be told,” said Bruhl. “Gottfried is a hero for our times.”
Amini was Oscar-nominated for best adapted screenplay for The Wings of the Dove in 1998. His other film credits include Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, and The Two Faces of January, which he also directed.
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