Warner Bros. Pictures Germany has added Sven Taddicken's pirate comedy Zwoelf Meter Ohne Kopf, Peter Timm's tragicomic romance transcending the Berlin Wall Liebe Mauer, and Kai Wessel's Hildegard Knef biopic Hilde to its 2009 distribution lineup.

Based on a screenplay by Matthias Pacht, Taddicken's tale of 15th-century North Sea pirates will star Ronald Zehrfeld (Red Cockatoo) as Klaus Stoertebeker and Matthias Schweighofer, who plays the title role in Warner Bros' current release The Red Baron, as Goedeke Michels.

Warner Bros. will also serve as co-producer for this production by Hamburg-based Wueste Film which is scheduled to begin principal photography on Sept 9 at locations on the North and Baltic Sea coasts and in Denmark.

Backing has already been granted by Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and the German Federal Film Board (FFA) for the project which reunites Taddicken with Wueste Film after their previous successful collaboration on his award-winning second feature Emma's Bliss (Emmas Glueck).

At the same time, Warner Bros. is set to continue the collaboration with director Peter Timm and his production company Relevant Film that began with the distribution of his 2006 family film Rudy, The Racing Pig 2 by handling his next feature project Liebe Mauer.

The tragicomic story shows how the love between a female student from West Berlin and an East German border guard. Shooting will start later this year in Berlin so that the completed film can be released to tie-in with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall during 2009.

In addition, the US major's German outpost will distribute Kai Wessel's $15m (Euros 9.5m) Hilde which Egoli Tossell Film's Cologne office plans to shoot in North Rhine-Westphalia this summer with Heike Makatsch as the legendary diva and a supporting cast including Monica Bleibtreu (Four Minutes), Michael Gwisdek (Good Bye, Lenin!) and Henry Huebchen (Go For Zucker!).

This week, Filmstiftung NRW awarded up to $1.34m (Euros 850,000) for the project whose screenplay by Fred Breinersdorfer and Maria von Heland follows Knef's life from her acting beginnings on such films as 1946's The Murderers Are Amongst Us to her singing career which culminated in a concert in Berlin's Philharmonie in 1966.

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