Oliver Hirschbiegel to direct the story of Georg Elser, the man who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1939.

Ten years after the success of Oscar-nominated Downfall, about the last days of Hitler, director Oliver Hirschbiegel returns to Germany with a new, Nazi drama.

Shooting on Georg Elser, a portrait of the resistance fighter who tried to assassinate Hitler in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller in November 1939, started yesterday (July 2) in Wackershofen, Southern Germany.

It marks a return to Hirschbiegel’s home turf after making biopic Diana, about the last two years in the life of Princess Diana, which was poorly received by critics.

Hirschbiegel replaces Torsten C. Fischer, who had previously been attached to direct.

In the upcoming film, Christian Friedel (The White Ribbon) will play Elser, Katharina Schüttler (Generation War) will portray his girlfriend Elsa and and Burghart Klaussner (The White Ribbon) will play head of the Criminal Police of the “Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Defense Office) Arthur Nebe.

The crew includes author Fred Breinersdorfer, DoP Judith Kaufmann and designer duo Benedikt Herforth and Thomas Stammer. Producers are Oliver Schündler, Boris Ausserer and Fred Breinersdorfer.

NFP will release the feature on April 2 2015 in Germany, almost exactly 70 years after Georg Elser’s death in the Dachau concentration camp. Beta Cinema handles world sales.

Elser nearly changed world history with his assassination attempt but German dictator Adolf Hitler left the Bürgerbräukeller earlier than expected.

The film will follow Elser from his early years in the Swabian Alps - when National Socialism arrived in his hometown - to his last days at the Dachau concentration camp, where he was killed shortly before the end of the war at the command of the one whom he himself wanted to kill, Hitler.

The film will shoot until the beginning of September in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin and South Tyrol. It is a production of Lucky Bird Pictures in coproduction with SWR (Manfred Hattendorf and Michael Schmidl) as well as ARD Degeto (Christine Strobl), BR (Claudia Simionescu), WDR (Götz Bolten), ARTE (Andreas Schreitmüller), Delphi Medien, Philipp filmproduction (Philipp Hoepp) and Broth Film.

The production is subsidized by FFF FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and BLS Südtirol.

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