Eytan Fox, Filme pair for war project

'Gad' based on true World War II story

By ED MEZA, ALI JAAFAR

Israeli director Eytan Fox ("Walk on Water") has signed up with X Filme Intl. for his next project, a World War II tale about a gay Jew who flees the Nazis, joins the Jewish resistance and saves dozens of Jews from being murdered.

"Gad" is based on the true story of Gad Beck and will shoot on location in Germany. Fox and longtime collaborator and partner Gal Uchovsky are writing the script, which will be largely in English. Budget will be in the $6 million-$10 million range, and producers are hoping to cast an American actor in the lead role.

"It's a complicated story because Gad's mother was originally a German Christian who converted to Judaism, so he had quite a large German family in Berlin," said Uchovsky. "The Nazis would call someone like Gad a mischling, or half-Jew, so the film will also look at those relations."

Fox, whose "Walk on Water" is to date the highest-grossing Israeli pic in the U.S., was approached by X Filme Intl. managing director Andro Steinborn when the two met at Cannes last year. Lensing is expected to begin by early 2009. Israeli shingle United King Films and web Keshet have already boarded the project, continuing their long-standing relationships with Fox and Uchovsky.

Pic follows X Filme Intl.'s upcoming production "The Countess," Julie Delpy's period thriller about the bloodthirsty 16th century Hungarian Countess Bathory, a real-life aristocrat who moisturized her skin with the blood of virgins.

Delpy wrote "The Countess" and will also direct and star. Principal photography begins in Berlin on Feb. 18, and pic will also shoot on location at various medieval castles throughout Germany.

X Filme Intl. is looking to finance the e5.5 million ($8 million) pic through federal and regional subsidies as well as the German Federal Film Fund, and is in the process of hitting up the German Federal Film Board, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung for production dough.

The film was originally set to shoot in Hungary, but producers decided on Germany after realizing production costs would be much lower here, according to Steinborn.

Delpy's take on the Bathory legend will explore how the powerful and wealthy countess was defamed by her enemies, among them influential royals who where financially indebted to her late husband.

William Hurt and Daniel Bruehl, who appeared in Delpy's "2 Days in Paris," co-star as a father and son torn apart by their relationship with the countess. Hurt portrays a Machiavellian operator out to bring the countess down, while Bruehl's character falls for the woman and becomes her young paramour.