07/03/2006

Shooting for The Three Investigators in the Secret of Skeleton Island (Die drei ??? und die Geisterinsel) kicked off this week in South Africa, after three years of negotiations for producer Ronald Kruschak (Studio Hamburg Produktion).

The cult series of (originally US) novels (of which German publishing company Kosmos puts out 3 million copies annually) brings to the big screen Justus, Peter and Bob in adventures that are 40 years old and had, to date, only spawned a highly popular radio series.

The new adventures of the three amateur detectives will prove to be hectic, since a theme park where terror reigns is being constructed on Skeleton Island, their South African holiday island, which the three friends investigate, uncovering old secrets. This intriguing story was written by Thomas Walendy, David Howard and Philip LaZebnik and will be directed by Florian Baxmeyer, a young 31 year-old director who made the Oscar-nominated 2004 short film The Red Jacket.

"It was very difficult to acquire all the rights to this family film, even more so because everyone was interested in it", explained Sytze van der Laan, head of Studio Hamburg Produktion. It needed the support of Filmförderung Hamburg, Filmförderungsanstalt Berlin and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg to complete the €11.5m budget.

Despite the judicial, financial and creative challenges presented by the project, the general delight was summed up by Wolfgang Braun, director of Buena Vista International-Allemagne, which will release the film on Easter 2007: "We are happy and proud to bring these three legendary detectives to the screen".

International sales are being handled by Beta Cinema and shooting will last until May.

(Translated from French)