German outfit takes rights to three screenplays; director Billie August attached to In A Different Time.

Munich/Berlin-based international finance, development and production outfit Lailaps Pictures, which was co-founded in 2006 by producer Nils Dunker and actor Anatole Taubman, has optioned the rights to three screenplays which will serve as the first projects in its English-language feature film slate.

The projects being developed by Lailaps include Greg Latter’s adaptation of Peter Harris’ award-winning courtroom thriller In A Different Time, with Bille August attached to direct; the thriller The Spy Of God, penned by International Emmy Award-winner Sylke Rene Meyer and based on true events of how the Cold War was fought out within the Vatican City  in the late 1970s; and the romantic comedy The Uncertainty Principle, written by Ben Chessell and Rjurik Davidson.

Lailaps Pictures is planning to pursue a two-prong strategy in its activities with involvement in English-speaking feature films with global appeal - either as a minor producing partner or full producer – and budgets of up to $20 million, as well as in German-language feature films and TV projects to be geared specifically to the German, Austrian and Swiss markets.