COLOGNE -- Michael "Bully" Herbig, arguably Germany's top B.O. attraction, has revealed plans for his next project, due to hit theaters in summer 2007.
The writer-director-actor, who started out on TV with hit comedy shows "Bully Parade" and "Bully & Rick," unexpectedly landed the country's most successful post-war B.O. hit in 2002 with "Manitou's Shoe," a spoof of German Westerns that the baby-boomer generation grew up with in the 1960s. His follow-up, "Spaceship Surprise -- Period 1" followed a similar pattern in 2004, lampooning "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" with nearly equal success.
For his current project, Herbig is returning to a more local theme. "Lissi und der wilde Kaiser" (Lissi and the Wild Emperor) sends up Germany's beloved "Sissi" trilogy of the 1950s -- high kitsch at its best with the 19th century adventures of an Austrian country girl who marries emperor Franz Josef.
The original pics starred the late Romy Schneider, who went on to become a European film icon, increasingly disturbing her legion of Sissi fans with daring choices of roles; and Karlheinz Boehm, who became a renowned humanitarian activist through his Africa aid projects.
Herbig is helming the new project, a 3-D animated film that has been in the making for the past year. So where does Sissi end and Lissi start? "Same time, same place, but Lissi will be doing all the things Sissi wasn't allowed to," Herbig quips. The toon feature is budgeted at some $12 million and will be distributed by Constantin Film.
Herbig's experience in the animation genre has so far been confined to dubbing the character of Fender in the German version of "Robots" and providing the voice of the main character in Constantin Film's upcoming tyke ghost comedy "Hui Buh."
"Lissi" may even have prospects outside of Germany, in view of the source material's continuing popularity. During their Christmas 2005 reruns, the "Sissi" pics garnered a share of up to 33% on TF1 in France, according to distributor Beta Film. Company has, over the years, managed to sell the mix of old-fashioned Alpine romance and aristocratic drama to some 90 countries.
As for Herbig, he's happy to be behind the camera this time out, confident he won't be missed on screen: "Believe me, you wouldn't want to see me in women's wear for 90 minutes."
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