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The 8th episode of American Horror Stories season 3 is the first one I’ve seen with something actually supernatural. It follows a group of boys called the Eastie Boys in a small town. The episode begins with a scene from 1851 where a drunken man gets lured to jump into a well because of his greed for gold. After the title credits, we see that same well, but the surroundings have changed drastically. It’s now presumably the present day, and a guy named Colin is making his way to his fiancée and the bank she works at. Hailey is pregnant, and they make some small talk until it gets serious and she asks him about work. He says he’s got some interviews lined up but that he’s also meeting one of his childhood friends, one of the dudes from Eastie Boys. Hailey doesn’t like this idea, and...

Berlin-based Picture Tree International (Pti) has acquired global sales rights to Leander Haussmann’s highly anticipated East German laffer “A Stasi Comedy.”

Set in the early 1980s, the film centers on East Germany’s infamous state security service, the Staatssicherheitsdienst or Stasi, and young agent Ludger, played by David Kross, who is sent to infiltrate the counterculture scene in East Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district, home to artists, bohemians and free-thinking radicals. Decades later, Ludger is confronted with the possibility of his secret Stasi past coming to light.

Written and directed by Haussmann, “A Stasi Comedy” is the third installment in the celebrated filmmaker’s East German-themed comedy trilogy that began with “Sonnenallee” (“Sun Alley”) in 2000 and followed with “Nva” in 2004.

“After 30 years, it should be finally allowed to laugh about the Stasi,” Haussmann said.

“A Stasi Comedy” is produced by Ufa Fiction in co-production with Constantin Film, which is...

Just yesterday, Empire posted a photo of Tom Tykwer and Lana and Andy Wachowski surrounded by novelist David Mitchell and producers Uwe Schott, Philip Lee, Stefan Arndt and Grant Hill. The occasion? They'd just wrapped shooting at Studio Babelsberg on the most expensive German film since the days of Ufa, Cloud Atlas. Babelsberg, practically on life support after the fall of the Berlin wall, is thriving once again. And in February, the legendary studio celebrates its 100th anniversary.

To celebrate, the Berlin International Film Festival, running February 9 through 19, will be awarding the studio a Berlinale Camera and presenting a special series, "Happy Birthday, Studio Babelsberg." The lineup:

Fw Murnau's The Last Laugh (1924) Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1929/30) Josef von Báky's The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen (1943) Wolfgang Staudte's The Murderers Are Among Us (1946) Kurt Maetzig's The Rabbit Is Me (1965) Konrad Wolf's Goya (1971) Roland Gräf's...

MUNICH -- The German Federal Film Board has shelled out €3.6 million ($4.7 million) so far this year for various film projects. Among the recipients were such directors as Germany's Oskar Roehler and Holland's Paul Verhoeven, who took €500,000 ($648,000) and €400,000 ($518,000), respectively, the board said Friday. Two blockbuster children's films, one based on a long-lived mystery series called The Three Detectives, and the other starring German filmmaker Michael "Bully" Herbig, received €600,000 ($777,500) each. Detlev Buck, who directed the surprise comedy hit Sonnenallee in 1999, received a grant of €200,000 ($259,000) for his latest project.

COLOGNE, Germany -- MTV Germany veejay Christian Ulmen has been cast to star in the title role of Leander Haussmann's upcoming comedy Herr Lehmann, the film's producers, Boje Buck Produktion and Pandora Filmproduktion, said Tuesday. The film is Haussmann's first project since the surprise success of his debut feature, Sun Alley, also from Boje Buck. Alley was one of the top-grossing German films of 1999. Ulmen will play the titular Lehmann, a 30-year-old bartender in West Berlin in 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Boje Buck co-head Detlev Buck, who co-scripted and starred in Sun Alley, will play Lehmann's best friend, Karl. Katja Danowski will star as love interest Katrin.

COLOGNE, Germany -- Financially troubled Studio Babelsberg has secured a new lease on life, revealing Tuesday that the German film studio has signed contracts for the production of three new feature films at its Potsdam-based complex. Babelsberg said the films shooting at the studio will be Herr Lehmann, a new comedy from Sun Alley director Leander Haussmann; Die Frauen von der Rosenstrasse (The Woman From Rosenstrasse), Margarethe von Trotta's 1940s period piece; and Die Nacht Singt Ihre Lieder (The Night Sings Their Songs), a new drama from director Romuald Karmakar (Manila, Deathmaker). The news comes as Babelsberg parent Vivendi Universal signaled that it intends to keep the German studio running despite rumors that Vivendi Uni is considering selling off Babelsberg to pay down debt.