The US born director of Desert Flower has been picked by producer-distributor Constantin Film to direct Kampusch, one of the last projects which Bernd Eichinger had been working on before his untimely death in January this year.

According to a report in today’s Munich newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bernd Eichinger had completed writing 60 pages of the screenplay about the true life story of the Austrian Natascha Kampusch who was kidnapped at the age of 10 and held captive for eight years before she managed to escape from her tormentor in 2006.

Constantin Film executive Martin Moszkowicz was cited as saying that a female screenwriter will be brought onboard to complete the screenplay and the company will be sitting down with Hormann to decide on the lead actress and the rest of the cast.

Constantin Film plans to begin shooting of this drama inspired by Kampusch’s autobiography  next year.

Meanwhile, Hormann is presently working at sound stages in Studio Babelsberg on the romantic comedy Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein, which is based on the bestseller of the same name by Paul Watzlawick and stars Johanna Wokalek, Iris Berben, David Kross, Richy Müller and Benjamin Sadler.

The production by Peter Herrmann’s Desert Flower Filmproduktion is being co-produced with ARD Degeto/Bavarian Broadcasting, Studio Babelsberg, B.A. Produktion GmbH and KINOWELT (now StudioCanal), with funding from the German Federal Film Board (FFA), Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern (FFF) and the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF).

Principal photography is also due to begin in 2012 on another of Bernd Eichinger’s pet projects: an adaptation of Siegfried Lenz’s novellaSchweigeminute which is to be directed by Andreas Dresen.

Dresen’s latest feature Stopped On Track (Halt Auf Freier Strecke) had its world premiere in the Un Certain regard section in Cannes this year.