"Salmei, Dalbei, Adomei" was the spell that should still ring in the ears of any Catweazle fan. Thus, the wizard from the year 1066 tried in the TV series in the seventies durchzuschlagen. The actor Geoffrey Bayldon, who died in 2017, played the confused druid terrific, quirky and confused. For a movie, the magician is now catapulted into the present, in the title role: Otto Waalkes. The National Film Fund (FFA) supports the project with 600,000 euros, as it says in a message.
Besides Waalkes, who also co-wrote the script, Katja Riemann, Henning Baum and Julius Weckauf ("The boy has to go to the fresh air") should also be seen. Under the direction of Sven Unterwaldt, Catweazle will accidentally conjure up the present, where he meets the eleven-year-old Benni (Weckauf). With him, the medieval-looking mage goes in search of his druid staff, because only this can bring him back to his time.
Waalkes surrounds the project with confidants: with director Unterwaldt the comedian already worked together in two "7 dwarfs" films; he wrote the script for the "Catweazle" remake together with Bernd Eilert, author of Otto-Gags since the eighties, and comedy specialist Claudius Pläging. The rental company Tobis wants to bring the film to the cinema for Christmas 2020.
The FFA also announced that actor Daniel Bruehl will make his directorial debut with Nebenan. The script is provided by the writer Daniel Kehlmann. Together with Peter Kurth Brühl will be in the "black comedy about the extremes of different life situations" also in front of the camera. The FFA supports the film with 420,000 euros. Brühl is in the family drama "My Zoe" (directed by Julie Delpy) from December 14th. He plays in it a doctor who is to clone a dead girl, because the mother can not accept the death of her daughter.
The writer Catharina Jung, who is working on the filming of Dörte Hansen's bestseller "Mittagstunde" ("Noon Hour"), will receive a script funding of 25,000 euros. Emily Atef, who caused a sensation last year with her Romy-Schneider homage "3 Days in Quiberon", receives 75,000 euros for the development of her screenplay of Daniela Kriens novel "Someday we'll tell everything".
