Ziegler Film launches cinema label to concentrate its activities on feature film production

 
With Ziegler Film’s production of Jo Baier’s Henry Of Navarre opening in over 200 German cinemas today (Thursday), the production house has launched the Ziegler Cinema label to concentrate its future activities in the area of feature film production. 
 
The company’s two CEOs, Regina and Tanja Ziegler have appointed former Telepool Head of License Transactions Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann as managing director of Ziegler Cinema. 
 
Ziegler Cinema currently has five projects at different stages of development based on bestselling literary properties.
 
They are Freshly Squeezed, a romantic comedy based on the bestseller by Susanne Fröhlich; Build! Build!, a realistic, dry East-West comedy based on an original idea from the writing team of Ralf Günther, Moritz Netenjakob and Roger Schmelzer; What Fits In Two Suitcases, an adaptation of Veronika Peters’ bestselling biography of life in a Benedictine convent; The Concubine Of Shanghai, a passionate drama set in Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century, based on the novel by the great Chinese writer Hong Ying; and the historical epic The Witch And The Saint, based on the bestseller by Ulrike Schweikert. 
 
Higuchi-Zitzmann told ScreenDaily that one of the first films from the slate likely to go into production would be Freshly Squeezed at the beginning of 2011. “Susanne Fröhlich is a kind of Helen Fielding in Germany with a large female fan community,” she said. 
 
“In the long term, we also want to realise international co-productions,” Higuchi-Zitzmann added. “It would certainly make sense for The Concubine of Shanghai to enter into a partnership with a Chinese producer.” 
 
Henry Of Navarre, which had its world premiere in a gala screening in the Berlinale Special sidebar last month, is being handled internationally by Bavaria Film International.