EXCLUSIVE: Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation, set up by his late mother, says it is in negotiations with European and US partners to produce a film about the director’s life and career.
As the 30th anniversary of the untimely death of Rainer Werner Fassbinder [pictured] at only 37 in 1982 was marked this weekend, the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation (RWFF) has announced that it is currently negotiating with European and US partners to produce a film about the legendary director’s eventful life and career.
News of this project comes after Senator Film subsidiary deutschfilm had announced last month in Cannes that it would be producing Marco Kreuzpaintner’s Rainer, which he is currently writing with screenwriter Gerrit Hermans, as a German-Luxembourgish-French co-production with the Berlin arm of Senator Film Produktion, Nicolas Steil’s Iris Group and Paris-based Rezo Films.
Principal photography for Rainer is set for spring 2013 with Senator Film Verleih distributing in Germany and Rezo Films’ world sales arm REZO handling international sales.
In a communiqué, RWFF, which was founded by Fassbinder’s late mother Liselotte Eder in 1986, stated that, “as heir and custodian of the rights to the estate, the RWFF assumes an important control function so that other film projects are considered as not being authorised in the absence of a contractual basis.”
A spokeswoman for RWFF commented that the “necessary agreement” had not yet been concluded between the Foundation and Rainer’s producers.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, deutschfilm’s Anatol Nitschke explained: “We would like to win the Foundation as a partner in some form. Marco Kreuzpaintner had already told Juliane Lorenz [president and CEO of the Berlin-based RWFF] at an early phase about his idea and we would like to speak again then with the Foundation with a finished screenplay. Irrespective of this, we will absolutely uphold all citation and personality rights in our very freely narrated story. It won’t be a biopic, it will be a melodrama.”
Meanwhile, the 30th anniversary of Fassbinder’s death was marked in his home town of Bad Wörishofen on Sunday (10 June) with a commemorative event and screenings. The forthcoming Filmfest München (June 29 – July 7) will be staging a special homage.
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