The Lives Of Others producer Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion is collaborating for the second time with the German outpost of Warner Bros. for Simon Verhoeven's Maennerherzen which begins shooting in Berlin today.

A year ago, the Munich-based company produced U-900, a comedy about a submarine on the run in 1944 Germany, which Warner Bros. Entertainment is scheduled to open in German cinemas at the beginning of October.

Warner Bros. will now also serve as the theatrical distributor for Verhoeven's comedy set in a fitness studio which is described as 'an episodic daisy chain about what it means to be a man' and is headlined by TV presenter-actor Christian Ulmen (Berlin Blues) and actor-producer-director Til Schweiger.

Meanwhile, this November will see producers Max Wiedemann and Quirin Berg teaming up with Sony Picture Entertainment's local German production arm, Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion, on Markus Goller's buddy and culture clash comedy Friendship which will be shooting in Germany and the USA, starring Matthias Schweighofer (The Red Baron). Schweiger's Barefoot Films will co-produce.