Veteran Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, who delighted international audiences with his performance as the grandfather in Fredi M Murer's Vitus, has been cast for the lead role in an adaptation of Thomas Huerlimann's 1998 bestselling novel Der Grosse Kater.

The co-production between Benito Mueller's Barry Films and Claudia Wick's Abrakadabra Films is currently in the financing stage and will be directed by Markus Imboden from a screenplay written by Mueller and Urs Buehler.

In Der Grosse Kater, Huerlimann juxtaposes the political work of a Federal President - his politician father Hans held this position for a year in 1979 - with the private tragedy of a dying son (Huerlimann's brother in real life). The book has sold 50,000 copies in the German-language area.