Germany’s Amusement Park Film is developing an English-language remake of the French-Italian movie “Les Aventuriers,” with Edward Berger on board to direct, and “Next Door,” a Berlin-set dark comedy that will mark the directorial debut of actor Daniel Bruhl.
Berger, who is known for helming “Deutschland 83″ and Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer “Patrick Melrose,” is co-developing the remake of “Les Aventuriers.” Gregory Burke, the BAFTA-nominated writer of “71” and “7 Days in Entebbe,” is writing the screenplay.
“Les Aventuriers” is a 1967 movie directed by Robert Enrico and starring Alain Delon and Lino Ventura. Based on a novel by José Giovanni, the story revolves around two likable underachievers who are best friends and set off to go treasure-hunting off the coast of Africa.
Amusement Park, which has offices in Berlin and Hamburg, is set to produce the remake and will be casting some prominent actors in the lead roles, producer Malte Grunert told Variety at the Zurich Film Festival.
Another high-profile Amusement Park project, “Next Door,” is a two-hander and a “dark comedy dealing with social inequalities and gentrification,” said Grunet. The script is being penned by Daniel Kehlmann, the Austrian- German writer of “You Should Have Left” and “Me and Kaminski.” Bruhl (“Goodbye, Lenin”), who is one of the owners of Amusement Park, will star in the film, on top of directing.
The script is nearly complete and the film is expected to start shooting next spring, Grunert said. Warner Bros. is on board to distribute “Next Door” in Germany.
Amusement Park is also developing a TV series based on “The Tin Drum,” the 1959 novel by Nobel laureate Gunter Grass, which was previously adapted into a feature film directed by Volker Schlöndorff in 1979. That film won a Palme d’Or as well as a foreign-language Oscar.