Kinowelt Filmproduktion has added another three local titles - Playa Del Futuro, Antikoerper and Max & Moritz - to its production line-up.

The company has previously made commitments to co-produce an adaptation of Wladimir Kaminer's Russendisko with Christoph Meyer-Wiel's CMW Films and Joachim von Vietinghoff's Von Viettinghoff Filmproduktion (see ScreenDaily.com, October 2003).

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com at this week's CineMart in Rotterdam, Rainer Koelmel said that he had become a co-producer with Joern Rettig's Bosko Biati Film on Peter Lichtefeld's Euros 2.6m new feature Playa Del Futuro which began shooting in December.

Lichtefeld came to international prominence with the 1998 film Trains n' Roses (Zugvoegel) starring Joachim Krol, Peter Lohmeyer and Finland's Outi Maenpaa - and has brought Lohmeyer, Maenpaa, Nina Petri and Hilmi Sozer together for the laconic love story set in Cologne and Andalusia.

In addition, Koelmel will serve as co-producer on writer-director Christian Alvart's Euros 2.8m second feature Antikoerper (Antibodies) which is being produced by Boris Schoenfelder's Medienkontor Movie. The film received Euros 400,000 project funding from the German Federal Film Board last summer.

Koelmel is also partnering with another Berlin production outfit Next Film on Thomas Frydetzki's "anarchistic farce" Max & Moritz which is loosely based on the comic figures created by Wilhelm Busch in an updated modern version.

Koelmel explained that the Munich-based Kinowelt Filmproduktion is a subsidiary of his own company Starhaus Produktionen and a separate entity from the new Kinowelt GmbH which was launched a year ago in Leipzig to run the core businesses of the insolvent Kinowelt Medien empire.

He has a "first look" deal with the distribution arm Kinowelt Filmverleih - who has already committed to theatrically release Russendisko and Playa Del Futuro - but there is no obligation for it to pick up all of the films being produced or co-produced by Kinowelt Filmproduktion.

Koelmel pointed out that Kinowelt GmbH itself has two production entities - Pro-ject Filmproduktion and Extrafilm - which may also get back into production themselves in the future.

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