German producer Henrik Meyer is to step down as one of the managing directors of Studio Hamburg's production arm Letterbox Filmproduktion from July 1. Meyer will have an exclusive deal with the outfit as a freelance producer for feature films and TV movies, focusing on developing screenplays with US writers for the German market.

Meyer's first projects will include two features - Just Married and Rosenstrasse - as part of Letterbox's three-picture co-production deal with Herbert Kloiber's Tele-Muenchen Group (see Screendaily, January 12).

Just Married is a turbulent comedy about a green card marriage which a straight American enters into with a gay German so that the American can prolong his stay in Germany and find his dream woman again.

The feature, which will be distributed by TMG's Concorde Film next year, was written by US author Ben Taylor. Meyer and Taylor have previously collaborated on such films as Rainer Kaufmann's Talk Of The Town and Miguel Alexandre's SchutzengelGesucht, which premieres at the Filmfest Muenchen next week. Meanwhile, the World War II drama Rosenstrasse will be Margarethe von Trotta's return to feature film after an excursion into television.

Meyer came to Studio Hamburg in 1992 and produced such projects as Talk Of The Town and Der Pakt before setting up Letterbox Filmproduktion in 1997.