Fresh off the acclaimed Berlinale premiere of his third feature, Rose (hands down was among read our glowing review), Austrian filmmaker Markus Schleinzer is now piecing together what could be quite an avant-garde biographic treatment of a singular artist’s rise within New York’s East Village art scene of the 1970s. Klaus Nomi will be the subject of his fourth feature film with Christian Friedel (who is also a musician in his own right) taking on the cult icon figure. Screen Daily reports Schubert’s Johannes Schubert will be producing the project which received a good chunk of change from the Vienna Film Fund. What is most trippy here is that Schleinzer will include animation elements in what is tipped as a coming-of-age musical. Mubi landed the distribution rights to Rose – and we can expect this to make its North American premiere at either Telluride, Toronto and/or NYFF.
Co-written by Schleinzer and Alexander Brom, Friedel will play German singer Klaus Nomi, an important part of New York’s East Village art scene in the 1970s, before his death from AIDS in 1983. Nomi was known for his bizarre theatrical live performances, heavy make-up and unusual costumes.
