News

A digest of key Swiss industry news announced during the Locarno Film Festival.

Swiss public broadcaster Srg has extended its co-production agreement with the local film industry for another four years and has increased its annual budget by CHF1.5m ($1.7m) to CHF34m ($38m).

The new “Pacte de l’Audiovisuel” co-production agreement between Srg and the local film industry will run from 1 January 2024 until the end of 2027.

The annual budget available in the “Pacte” for co-producing Swiss feature films will increase from $10m (Chf 9m) to $11.45m CHF10m in response to rising costs for film production.

In addition,...

Director J.C. Chandor will develop “The Robber,” a remake of the German thriller “Der Räuber,” FilmNation Entertainment announced Thursday. Neal Dodson and Anna Gerb will produce the film along with Chandor, while Chase Palmer will adapt the screenplay. FilmNation will handle the worldwide distribution rights. “Der Räuber,” released in 2010, was directed by Benjamin Heisenberg, who wrote it alongside Martin Prinz. It’s based on Prinz’s Austrian novel of the same name. Also Read: Tom Cruise 'Mummy' Remake Pushed Back 11 Weeks The film is about an elite marathon runner who uses races as cover for his bank heists. The Heisenberg...

FilmNation is reuniting with Jc Chandor and his All Is Lost producers Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb on a remake of the German thriller.

Benjamin Heisenberg directed Der Räuber from a screenplay he co-wrote with Martin Prinz based on Prinz’s novella of the same title.

Chandor will produce with Dodson and Gerb and is attached to direct, while FilmNation will finance the film and handle worldwide distribution sales. The parties also collaborated on A Most Violent Year.

Chase Palmer will adapt the screenplay. Der Räuber centred on an elite runner who used major races as a cover to rob banks. The film premiered at the 2010 Berlinale.

Michael Kitzberger and Heisenberg negotiated on behalf of co-producers Ngf Geyrhalterfilm (Vienna) and Peter Heilrath Filmproduktion (Munich) and Martin Prinz.

★★★☆☆ "What are you looking forward to doing on your release?" Johann Rettenberger (Andreas Lust) is asked by his parole officer at the beginning of Benjamin Heisenberg's lean Austrian crime thriller The Robber (Der Räuber, 2010). "Not running around in circles," he replies. However, Johann doesn't simply mean his regular exercise regime is going to become more varied. He has no intention of going straight, robbing a bank as soon as he has a moment free. Rettenberger is the kind of quiet career criminal that Ryan Gosling would play in the American remake; an alternate version of Nicolas Winding Refn's über stylish Drive (2011), minus the screeching automobiles.

The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule opening night reception at MoMA's Terrace 5 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and independent film critic Anke Leweke have organised The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule at MoMA, running from November 20 through December 06, 2013. Some of the filmmakers participating in this impressive program are Angela Schanelec with Orly and Mein langsames Leben (Passing Summer), Ulrich Köhler with Bungalow and Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness). Actor Nina Hoss will present with Christian Petzold, Barbara and Jerichow and with Thomas Arslan, Gold.

Arslan will also present two of his earlier films Geschwister (Brothers And Sisters) and Im Schatten (In The Shadows).

Also appearing in post-screening discussions are Benjamin Heisenberg with his cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider for Der Räuber (The Robber) and Christoph Hochhäusler, director of Falscher Bekenner (I Am Guilty...

Trailer for Benjamin Heisenberg’s The Robber with subtitles has hit the web! I’m sure this already sounds familiar to you, and I’m sure you remember us writing about this project.

The Robber is Heisenberg’s 2010 film which tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as “Pump-gun Ronnie,” who made a hobby of robbing banks.

The movie premiered at the Berlin Film Festival is based on author Martin Prinz‘ source tome Der Räuber.

Sony bought the English-language remake rights to Austrian helmer Benjamin Heisenberg’s movie but in the meantime the original is getting a limited release in the Us on April 29, 2011.

Check out the rest of this report for more story details.

“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pump-gun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies,...

I’m sure this already sounds familiar to you, and I’m sure you remember us writing about this project back in December. The Robber is an upcoming remake of Benjamin Heisenberg’s 2010 film which tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as “Pump-gun Ronnie,” who made a hobby of robbing banks.

Well, guess what, now it looks that Andrew Garfield is set to star in a remake of the German film.

So, according to the latest reports, The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield has watched the original and expressed interest in playing the lead part. On the other hand, we also learned that Laura Ziskin, producer of The Amazing Spider-Man is also in charge for producing the “Robber” remake.

Based on author Martin Prinz‘s source tome, The Robber (Der Räuber) tells the real-life story that goes like this:

“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger...

Sony has bought the English-language remake rights to Austrian helmer Benjamin Heisenberg‘s The Robber.

That’s the big news and quite fast Sony reaction because the movie just opened in Germany in March after a premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

But that’s not such a surprise, since we all know that this time last year, Sony and Scott Rudin snapped up remake rights to Swedish-language hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

So, at this moment still no director is attached, but we do know that Laura Ziskin will serve as producer on The Robber.

Based on author Martin Prinz‘s source tome, The Robber (Der Räuber) tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as “Pump-gun Ronnie,” who made a hobby of robbing banks. Check out the rest of this report for more story details.

“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria.

Year: 2010

Director: Benjamin Heisenberg

Writers: Benjamin Heisenberg,

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: Marina Antunes

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Johann Rettenberger was quite the (real life) character. A runner before going to jail for attempted robbery, he spends all of his time inside training, running circles in the yard and then on a treadmill which has been specially provided for him because of his talent for running. Johann is also about to get out of prison and his only plan is to get into professional running, even if the prison administrator warns that there isn’t much money in running and that without a back-up plan, he may well end up back behind bars.

So Johann gets out and immediately after his release robs his first bank. He then suits himself up, gets some coaching advice (neither of these are exactly cheap) and enters his first race which brings with it notoriety and a big purse.

French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche’s film centered on the story of Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman, otherwise derogatorily known as the Hottentot Venus, will be screening at the New York Film Festival, which begins its run September 24th. You know I’ll be there to see it, with my thoughts on the film to follow on this blog.

Recall back in April, we alerted you to the fact that the film was being made under the title Black Venus (which will remain), claiming its spot as the first feature-length film to have Baartman as its subject – at least, that’s what my research tells me.

At the time of my initial post, I couldn’t find much info on the project; however, I did think it odd that the list of cast members on the film’s IMDb page didn’t (and still don’t) list a Saartjie Baartman (or even Hottentot Venus) as a character.

The folks over at the Film Society of Lincoln Center have announced their main program for the 48th annual New York Film Festival running from September 24th - October 10th.

In addition to the already announced open night heavy hitter that is David Fincher's The Social Network, they've added another Hollywood big gun with Clint Eastwood's supernatural tale Hereafter, starring Matt Damon and Bryce Dallas Howard. The centerpiece film will be Julie Taymor's latest Shakespeare spectacle, The Tempest.

The real meat of the line-up *ahem* comes with Mexican cannibal feature, We Are What We Are, a film we've been pretty supportive of here at Twitch since its Cannes premiere. The complete list for the main slate is listed below with the expected bevy of Cannes holdovers and late year awards hopefuls.

Tickets go on sale to the public starting September 12th. And yes, we press hope to...

Clint Eastwood will unveil his Peter Morgan-scripted Matt Damon-starrer Hereafter as the closing night film of the New York Film Festival. The fest previously set the David Fincher-directed Facebook film The Social Network to open the festival and Julie Taymor's The Tempest to be its centerpiece. All three figure to be players in the Oscar race this year. Here is the rest of the Nyff program: Another Year Mike Leigh, 2010, UK Aurora Cristi Puiu, 2010, Romania Black Venus (Venus noire) Abdellatif Kechiche, France Carlos Olivier Assayas, 2010, France Certified Copy (Copie conformé) Abbas Kiarostami, 2010, France/Italy Film Socialisme Jean-Luc Godard, 2010, Switzerland Inside Job Charles Ferguson, 2010, USA Le Quattro Volte Michelangelo Frammartino, 2010, Italy Lennon NYC, Michael Epstein, 2010, USA Meek's Cutoff Kelly Reichardt, 2010, USA My Joy (Schastye moe) Sergei Loznitsa, 2010, Ukraine/Germany Mysteries Of Lisbon (Misterios de Lisboa) Raul Ruiz, Portugal/France Of Gods And Men (Des homes et des dieux) Xavier Beauvois,...

This is the review of The Robber (Der Räuber), starring Andreas Lust, Franziska Weisz, Markus Schleinzer, Roman Kettner, Hannelore Klauber-laursen and Tabea Werich, directed by Benjamin Heisenberg. This film is very well constructed; it feels that the director’s intention was to play the film out according to Rettenberger’s heartbeat, as he runs the camera and cutting gets faster and as things slow, as does the editing. Similar in style and tone to Austrian director Michael Haneke, Heisenberg has created a character study which intrigues beyond curiosity. Indeed you begin to wonder what will happen to this character, where is he going and what will the outcome be? In the role of Rettenberger, Lust creates a character that is void of emotion, never smiling even when he wins a marathon or robs a bank. It is a very convincing performance and is aided by the empathy we have for his ex-girlfriend,...

Two highly-anticipated second feature films from U.S. underground filmmakers will be making their World Premieres all the way over at the 64th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will run for twelve days on June 16-27. The films are Rona Mark’s The Crab and Zach Clark’s Vacation!.

The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.

Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...

Based on a novel which is in turn based on real life criminal “Pump-gun Ronnie.” Anyone can attempt to rob a bank so what’s the appeal of Ronnie’s story? How about the fact that aside from robbing banks, he’s also a professional athlete (a marathon runner to be exact - could come in handy when trying to avoid the police).

The Robber (“Der Räuber”) is Benjamin Heisenberg’s second full length feature and it stars Andreas Lust as Johann Rettenberger, the bank robber/marathoner in question.

Here’s the official word:

The Robber tells the story of a multitalented man: Johann Rettenberger is a successful marathon runner and a serial bank robber. Soberly and precisely he measures his heart rate, strain, stamina and efficiency – both during training runs and bank raids, from which, concealed beneath a ludicrous mask and armed with a pump gun, he takes flight from the police.

Berlinale has unleashed the first few titles from its 2010 line-up. The recently announced titles aren’t anything to write home about but I’m sure we’ll be seeing a few more announcements (including some titles we can get excited about) over the next few weeks.

First titles after the break.

Bal (Honey) Turkey / Germany

by Semih Kaplanoglu (Süt/Milk, Yumurta/Egg, Melegin Düsüsü/Angel’s Fall)

with Bora Altas, Erdal Besikcioglu, Tülin Özen, Alev Ucarer, Ayse Altay

World premiere

Der Räuber (The Robber) Austria / Germany

by Benjamin Heisenberg (Sleeper, Max-Ophuels-Preis 2006)

with Andreas Lust, Franziska Weisz

World premiere

My Name Is Khan India

by Karan Johar

with Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol

Out of competition

Na Putu (On the Path) Bosnia and Herzegovina / Austria / Germany / Croatia

by Jasmila Zbanic (Grbavica, Golden Bear 2006)

with Zrinka Cvitesic (Shooting Star 2010), Leon Lucev, Ermin Bravo, Mirjana Karanovic

World premiere

Shekarchi (The Hunter) Germany / Iran

by...