Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures (SBMP) has boarded Torsten Wacker's Superseks, the second German feature the studio has backed this year on top of its high profile international productions.

Starring Denis Moschitto, Marie Zielcke, Hilmi Soezer, and Martin Glade, the comedy centres on the 23-year-old Elviz who launches the first sex hotline exclusively for Turks. Superseks is produced by Hamburg-based Magnolia Filmproduktion together with Berlin's Valerian Film and broadcaster ZDF and backing from Filmstiftung NRW, FilmFoerderung Hamburg, and Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

"After Romuald Karmakar's Die Nacht Singt Ihre Lieder, Sueperseks is now the second purely German feature production within a year where SBMP is involved", Udo Happel, production executive responsible for German productions, told ScreenDaily.com.

"Alongside the big international productions, the German projects are really important for Studio Babelsberg."

In addition, Studio Babelsberg's production and postproduction services are currently being called on by numerous local features, ranging from the sound mixes for Bernd Sahling's Blindgaenger, Carsten Fiebeler's Kleinruppin Forever and Angelo Colagrossi/Hans Peter Kerkeling's Samba In Mettmann through to laboratory work for Andreas Struck's Sugar Orange and Andrew Hood's Skindeep.

Meanwhile, SBMP's international activities have been brought on to a new level by the appointment of production executive Henning Molfenter as Head Of Production to foster closer links with production companies at home and abroad in order to attract more projects to the studios and the Berlin-Brandenburg region.

Molfenter said that Roman Polanski's The Pianist and the Jackie Chan actioner Around The World In 80 Days had "shown that the studio and the region offer outstanding shooting conditions for national and international projects. However, we must raise the profile of the studio and the region in order to be able to hold our own in both the regional and international competition. The goal is and remains the continuous use of the studio services over the whole year."

According to Blickpunkt Films, one of the major international productions set to be coming Babelsberg's way in the future is The Bourne Supremacy, the sequel to The Bourne Identity, with Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Brian Cox and Julia Stiles reprising the roles for director Paul Greengrass. Production is expected to crank up at the end of the year and wrap in February 2004 after studio work in Babelsberg and location shooting in Berlin and Moscow.


Studio spokesman Felix Neunzerling told ScreenDaily.com that Molfenter, who served as executive producer on The Pianist and coordinated the 80 Days shoot in Berlin and Brandenburg, would be spending more time in future in London and Los Angeles to attract business to the studios.