Telepool will handle the international sales for Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky's new feature Lilly The Witch (Hexe Lilli) which is shooting for six weeks at the Babelsberg Studios before moving on to locations in Austria.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com, producer Corinna Mehner of blue eyes fiction said that the German-Austrian-Spanish co-production with Munich animation studio Trixter, Buena Vista International Production, Babelsberg Film, DOR Film and Steinweg Emotion Pictures will be distributed theatrically in Germany, Austria and Spain by Buena Vista International, and talks are underway with the US major to also distribute in Italy as well.

Based on the the best-selling books by the children's author Knister about 10-year-old Lilly and her adventures with an animated dragon Hector, the $11.7m family film stars newcomer Alina Freund as Lilly opposite Anja Kling as Lilly's mother, Ingo Naujoks as the evil sorcerer Hieronymus, veteran Spanish actress Pilar Bardem as a good witch Surulunda and singer-actress Yvonne Catterfeld in a guest role. The voice of Hector will be provided by the popular German comedian Michael Mittermeier.

Mehner explained that the film is set to be released by BVI in autumn 2008 and second and third Lilly The Witch films are already on the drawing board at blue eyes fiction.

Lilly The Witch marks another change of direction for Ruzowitzky and his return to the Babelsberg Studios little more than 12 months after having shot his Berlinale competition film The Counterfeiters there. Meanwhile, space requirements for United Artists' $60m Valkyrie project on the studio lot meant that the part of the Lilly shoot had to be relocated to a temporary sound stage in nearby Stahnsdorf.

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