An all-star cast has come aboard Night Train To Lisbon, the new Bille August film which is being sold by K5 International with PalmStar Media Capital and EFish Entertainment who are co-financing.

K5 confirmed today that Vanessa Redgrave, Bruno Ganz, Mélanie Laurent, Christopher Lee, Lena Olin, Martina Gedeck and Jack Huston have joined Jeremy Irons on the film. The cast also includes August Diehll, Nicolau Breyner, Adriano Luz, Jose Wallenstein and Beatriz Batarda.

Kevin Frakes’ PalmStar Media Capital has recently signed up to co-finance the film, which starts principal photography in March 2012.  PalmStar is a financial partner to K5 International.

K5 has already closed deals for Night Train To Lisbon with Concorde for Germany, Frenetic Films for Switzerland and Paradiso for Benelux.  The film has received major funding from Germany through FFA, FFHSH, and MBB and from Switzerland through BAK, Zuercher Filmstiftung as well as backing from Eurimages and the US via PalmStar Media Capital, Efish Entertainment.

Scripted by Ulrich Herrman and Greg Latter, Night Train To Lisbon is based on the bestselling novel by Pascal Mercier. It tells the story of Raimund Gregorius (Irons), a Swiss Professor. After saving a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, Gregorius stumbles on, and becomes obsessed by, a mysterious book that convinces him he should leave academia behind and travel to Lisbon. In search of the author, Gregorius acts as detective, pulling together pieces of the personal and political puzzle.

“These are some of the world’s most respected actors,” K5’s Oliver Simon and Daniel Baur said of the ensemble cast. “To have them together on screen for the first time will be electric.” 

“Bille’s skill as a director makes this a delight to be involved in,” added Carl Clifton, partner in sales and marketing at K5.

Night Train is produced by Studio Hamburg FilmProduktion and C-FILMS (Switzerland) in co-production with C-Films (Germany), Cinemate SA – Portugal and TMG - Tele München Group.  The film will be produced in association with K5 Media Group, PalmStar Media Capital and Efish Entertainment. 

Executive Producers include K5’s Daniel Baur and Oliver Simon, PalmStar’s Kevin Frakes and Efish’s Tom Reilly. The producers are Michael Lehmann, Kerstin Ramcke, Günther Russ, Andreas Knoblauch of Studio Hamburg FilmProduktion, Peter Reichenbach of Zurich-based C-FILMS, Benjamin Seikel at C-Films (Germany) in co-production with Ana Costa and Paulo Trancoso from Cinemate SA (Portugal) and TMG – Tele München Gruppe.