Perfume

[MacGuffin]

DreamWorks Picks Up Scent of 'Perfume'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

In a move that could lead to DreamWorks jumping into the specialty film market, the studio has picked up North American rights to "Perfume," the period serial-killer drama based on Patrick Sueskind's international bestseller.

German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, whose credits include the 1998 thriller "Run Lola Run," has been tapped to direct "Perfume," his first big-budget feature. Production is set to begin in July in Munich and Barcelona, Spain.

Adapted from Sueskind's "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer," the film will star British actor Ben Whishaw ("Enduring Love") as the twisted Grenouille, a man born with a supernatural sense of smell who sets out to create the perfect fragrance by distilling the essence of young virgins.

Alan Rickman will play Grenouille's rival, Antoine Richis, the merchant father of a young woman who becomes the target of the killer's obsession. Dustin Hoffman has signed on as master perfumemaker Giuseppe Baldini.

DreamWorks' acquisition was jointly announced Wednesday by the studio's new president and chief operating officer, Rick Sands, and Martin Moskowicz, president of production at Constantin Film, which is producing the project.

Sands said "Perfume" illustrates a new direction for DreamWorks as it seeks to place greater emphasis on "bringing the works of talented international directors, actors and writers to American audiences."

In his previous job as chief operating officer of Miramax Films, Sands played a role in overseeing that company's international operations.

There has been speculation that he would like to take DreamWorks, which has focused on mainstream studio features, into the specialty film arena -- possibly using the company's Go Fish Pictures label, which to date has been used to release animated films like "Millennium Actress."

Whether released under the Go Fish banner or the DreamWorks logo, a slate of smaller film acquisitions could be used to augment DreamWorks' current output of 10 or so films per year.

"Perfume" also marks the latest in a long line of literary adaptations for producer Bernd Eichinger, whose credits include Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" Hubert Selby Jr.'s "Last Exit to Brooklyn" and Peter Hoeg's "Smilla's Sense of Snow." Most recently, he produced the Oscar-nominated war epic "Downfall."

For Tykwer, "Perfume" is his first full-length film since 2002's "Heaven," which starred Cate Blanchett.

Sueskind's book has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide since 1985, making it the most successful German novel since Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front."

[Pubrick]

great news all around! tykwer will hav to try hard to ruin this now, with good writers and a solid cast behind him.

you don't like tykwer?      i'm not defending run lola run or anything, but  the princess and the warrior and heaven are gut

havn't seen heaven yet. wintersleepers was alrite but really amateur hour with the colours.

which brings me to the problem of lola. it makes me sad that i will never watch lola again, cos there's nothing more to see in it. and i like to think that a good movie is one u can watch over and over again. his movies' life expectancies are low for the talent he clearly has.

princess was boring tho i plan to see it again. it had the feeling of little rewatchability.

perfume is a book which can be read a million times. that's all he needs to capture to make it work.

i saw heaven.

it was awesome. i should've suspected that he just HAD to mature with another person's material. pta is doing that right? after exhausting his own reserves. that's what princess and the warrior felt like, he was rehashing and sort of summing up everything he had done in wintersleepers and lola. and it went on forever.

but this was very impressive. apart from excessive nodding from blanchett toward the end of the movie, every note was hit and held perfectly. it was the script, clearly, that forced him to mature. and as a result of this, i hav no doubt perfume will be as awesome as it should be.

consider me a born-again, post-heaven tykwerian.

[cowboykurtis]

as i stated before - really looking forward to this. a bit concerned about Tom T. however really need to see more of his work. Have only seen Run Lola and Princess - Both seemed exercises in style moreso than storytelling. I'm hoping Heaven solidifies my opinions on him. Seems to have for Pubrick. It's on the cue.

[MacGuffin]

New Dustin Hoffman to Begin Shooting

MUNICH, Germany (AP) Shooting of "Perfume: The Story of A Murderer" begins in Germany next week, with Dustin Hoffman starring in the screen version of the best-known German novel of the 20th century.

Hoffman said Tuesday he was approached by his friend, director Tom Tykwer best known for his 1998 film "Run Lola Run" and immediately agreed to the part of the perfumer, Baldini. The actor said he had read Patrick Suskind's book shortly after it came out some 20 years ago.

"At that time, it was one of the books that you had to have read," Hoffman said.

The film is being shot entirely in English in a Munich studio. It is scheduled to appear in cinemas in autumn 2006.

German producer Bernd Eichinger said he tried for years to get the film rights to the story of Jean-Baptise Grenouille, who experiences life in 18th century Paris entirely through smells.

British actor Ben Wishaw plays Grenouille, who shows up Baldini by effortlessly making complex perfumes that lead him on a strange and relentless criminal quest.

Hoffman said he liked the idea that humans "have more senses than we realize," noting that his favorite smell is that of small babies.

"I'm fascinated how babies' heads and necks always smell the same, although we all have different scents," Hoffman said.


U.S. actor Dustin Hoffman, right, and German directors Tom Tykwer, center, and Bernd Eichinger, left, during a photocall for the new Bernd Eichinger movie "The Perfume" in a studio of Bavaria Film in Munich, southern Germany, on Monday, July 4, 2005.

[Pubrick]

"I'm fascinated how babies' heads and necks always smell the same, although we all have different scents," Hoffman said.

i don't think he's read the book.

[Fernando]

Trailer

[MacGuffin]

Full German Trailer here.

[Pubrick]

warning..

SPOILERFUL IMAGE BUT NOT REALLY COS IT HAS NO CONTEXT BUT ANYWAY IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK IT'S YOUR OWN FAULT











YES

i knew Heaven showed promise.

[Ghostboy]

This trailer has made me very, very happy.

If any of you marketing execs at Dreamworks are listening...I dare you to keep the first few shots in the US trailer, whenever you get around to cutting it.

[Just Withnail]

YES

The trailer, and especially that shot makes me wish this would work:

[size=50p][/size]


SPOILER

Please, God, let it match the hilarity of the book.

[©brad]

fuuuuuuck. neither trailer is working for me. 

[bonanzataz]

grenouille is too good looking.

[MacGuffin]

Critics sniffy over Perfume, the 'unfilmable' film
· €50m movie of bestseller is Germany's most costly
· Kubrick, Scorsese, Scott backed out of project
Source: The Guardian

A 15-year wait for the film realisation of Patrick Süskind's best-selling novel Perfume ended last night with the Munich premiere of the project which many thought would be impossible to recreate on the big screen.

Set in the murky backstreets of 18th century Paris, the book tracks Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - born without a personal odour but who develops a superior olfactory sense - on his murderous quest for the perfect scent. With international sales of 15m copies, it is the most successful German novel for decades. It also caught the imagination of many film directors.

Stanley Kubrick was among those who fantasised about filming the book before he reputedly ditched it as "unfilmable".

Other big names at some time linked to the elusive project were Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and Tim Burton. But, years after the book's publication, it was finally the German cinema director Tom Tykwer who took the hot seat.

Süskind is keeping far from the limelight. Born in 1949, he has a sparse bibliography of books and plays, and lives a reclusive life in Munich. But the film, starring Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman and newcomer Ben Whishaw as Grenouille, is already being lauded as a likely hit of the year. With a budget of €50m, it is claimed to be the most costly German film to date.

However it remains to be seen whether the film can replicate the key to the book's success: its ability to conjure up smell.

Born without a personal odour, Grenouille is obsessed with creating a perfect smell for himself, an olfactory mission which impels him to murder virgins for their scent. Süskind's descriptions dwell on the stench of the fish market and pungent Parisian alleys.

The film's producer, Bernd Eichinger, the man behind the controversial Hitler film Downfall, said the film aims to bring smell to celluloid by imitating the author's attention to detail. "While Süskind used the clear and exact power of words, we use the power of image, noise and music," he said. "When filming a lawn in sunlight, or even a single tree, all that is needed is absolute optical precision and then smells are created."

But although German film critics praised the costumes and acting, many argued that the film fell short of conveying the sense of smell. The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung said it did not match up to the book and "in the end failed to emerge as the orgasm of a film it wanted to be". Meanwhile, Die Zeit weekly ridiculed the film as "big nose theatre", saying it rather obviously tried to convey smell through close-up shots of the protagonist's nose - of which there were no less than 27.

[MacGuffin]

PERFUME Smells Sweet in Europe
For many in Germany, this was a film adaptation as eagerly anticipated as this spring's Da Vinci Code.
Source: FilmStew.com

The German production Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is beginning to smell like an unexpected hit. The Hollywood Reporter notes the film opened in the local market in Germany this weekend and sold over a million tickets, taking in the equivalent of nearly $10 million on only 700 screens, a major blockbuster by German standards. 53% of all movie tickets sold in Germany over the weekend were for Perfume, leaving Cars, Miami Vice and Pirates of the Caribbean in the dust.

The film is also set to make waves in Belgium, according to Daily Variety. Perfume is running in competition at the 33rd annual Flanders Film Festival in early October, and its screening will be the Gala opening event. Tom Twiker directed the film based on the international bestseller by Patrick Susskind.

The murderer is a perfumer, born an orphan with a supernaturally acute sense of smell, and the story is set against the opulence of 18th century France. Ben Whishaw stars in the title role, with Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman in supporting roles. DreamWorks has picked up the film for domestic distribution, and it'll be scenting American Cinemas this December.

[SiliasRuby]

mmm mmm mmm this film could be up there with The Fountain as one of the most highly anticipated films going on these days.