Michael Ende's "Momo" is a classic of young adult literature.
The film adaptation starring Radost Bokel as Momo was released in cinemas in 1986.
Now the production company Rat Pack is working on a remake.
The best stories are still made in the theater.
Of course, Michael Ende (1929-1995) knew about the magic of this place - and let his heroine Momo enter the world in a dilapidated amphitheater for the first time.
That was in 1973, when Ende's novel Momo.
The Strange Tale of the Time Thieves and the Child Who Brought Back the Stolen Time to Mankind.
The girl with the wild curly hair and the big dark eyes lives in the stony circle, cares about her friends - and fights against the ominous gray gentlemen, whose only desire is to get people to save time.
"Momo" by Michael Ende sold more than 12.5 million copies
From this theatre, "Momo" has become a global success story over the past 50 years.
The book inspires young and old alike, has been translated into 53 languages and has sold more than 12.5 million copies.
In 1986 Johannes Schaaf brought his adaptation to the cinemas with Radost Bokel as Momo, John Huston in his last role as Master Hora, with Mario Adorf, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sylvester Groth - and with the author himself: Ende allowed himself a cameo appearance as a passenger on the train;
he found the implementation otherwise successful.
In contrast to the theatrical version of his other successful work "The Neverending Story" by Wolfgang Petersen.
The Munich production company Rat Pack has now launched a remake of the material;
After all, it is “more up-to-date than ever in today’s fast-moving and restless society”.
Producer Christian Becker has experience with the filming of Ende books: he was responsible for Dennis Gansel's "Jim Button and Lukas the Locomotive Driver" (2018) - and thus also impressed Roman Hocke, representative of Michael Ende's estate and friend of the writer, who in 1929 was born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
+
Michael Ende released Momo in 1973.
© Jörg Schmitt/dpa
Christian Ditter takes a seat in the director's chair.
Most recently, he directed the series "Biohackers" for Netflix and with "Vorstadtkrokodile" based on Max von der Grün, he proved that he has a feeling for how literature needs to be brought to the screen.
Christian Ditter directs "Momo".
Producer Becker announces that the novel will be implemented in its "original purity, simplicity and brilliance" - "as a modern classic that will not lose its topicality in the coming decades".
"Momo" is shot in English for the international market.
Ditter recalls his first encounter with the book: "As a child, I was enchanted by Ende's novel and was captivated by Momo's fantastic adventure.
I now also see it as a mirror of our society and the changing value of time.
It's big themes wrapped in a big adventure, perfect for the cinema – one of the few places where you can lose track of time and indulge your imagination.”
There's no cast yet, and Rat Pack hasn't announced when to start filming.
But perhaps more than any other project, what Beppo Strassenkehrer once said to Momo applies to this project: “You should never think about the whole street at once, you know?
You just have to think about the next step, the next breath, the next sweep of the broom.
And always just the next one.
Then it gives pleasure;
That's important, then you do your job well.
And that is how it is supposed to be."