Berlin: NL Film, Hupe Film Board ‘Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes’ (EXCLUSIVE)

By Ed Meza

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Amsterdam-based NL Film and Hupe Film in Cologne have boarded Jo Baier’s upcoming Nazi war criminal horror thriller “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes.”

The companies join co-producers Films in Motion (FIM), the Berlin-based shingle run by American producer René Asch, and Angelika Mohr’s Morefilms in Munich, which is also handling world sales.

German thesps Herbert Knaup and Matthias Habich topline the supernatural thriller, which follows a former SS concentration camp guard, played by Habich, desperately trying to avoid capture by a Nazi hunter (Knaup). Seeking to avoid capture, the old Nazi assumes an unlikely identity and hides in the most improbable place.

Budgeted at €2.5 million ($2.7 million), “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes” is set to go into preproduction later this year.

The award-winning Baier (“Henry of Navarre”) will direct the German-Dutch co-production from a script by American screenwriter J. Frank James.

“We’re thankful for the possibility to contribute to such an extraordinary story and we’re looking forward to co-producing this great project with FIM and Hupe Film,” said NL Film executive producer Sabine Brian.

NL Film’s recent productions include the award-winning WWII drama “The Resistance Banker” and the TV and feature film crime franchise “Penoza.”

Andreas Brauer’s Hupe Film has produced such pics as Martin Hawie’s upcoming thriller “Future Is a Lonely Place.”

Asch said he expected the film to resonate with today’s audiences, particularly “at a time of increasing anti-Semitism and racism.”

The film has so far sold to Der Filmverleih for Germany and Dubai-based Gulf Film for the Middle East as well as seven other countries.