EXCLUSIVE"Independence Day" and "Godzilla" helmer-producer Roland Emmerich and producing partner Ute Emmerich will produce "The 13th Floor," a thriller set to begin shooting in L.A. on Jan. 26.
Columbia Pictures has signed to handle North American distribution on the film, to be produced under Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's Centropolis banner. Ute Emmerich, an exec producer on "Independence Day," will hold the same credit on "Godzilla."
Financing on the $15 million-plus pic, which will be dealt with as a negative pickup by Columbia, is from German media companies and banking interests.
German TV helmer Josef Rusnak will direct from a script he wrote which centers on the scarier aspects of cloning and what it might do to the human in us. Set mostly in the future, "The 13th Floor" flashes between 1930s Hollywood, the present and the future.
Post-production, including extensive special effects work, will be done in Cologne, Germany.
-- John Voland
and Andrew Hindes
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