It has been over a dozen years in the making. We can confirm that Isabelle Huppert has indeed remained on board, so has Sophie Rois, and they will be surrounded by Birgit Minichmayr (of Everyone Else fame) and Huppert’s About Joan co-star in Lars Eidinger in Ulrike Ottinger’s long-gestating The Blood Countess. At eighty-two years young, the German filmmaker has been receiving some much needed pre-production coin support as of late and just landed another round of coin via German funding bodies Film und Medienstiftung NRW, FFF Bayern and Hessen Film & Medien. Tilda Swinton, Udo Kier and Irm Hermann (who passed away in 2020) were once mentioned way back in 2010. Coined as a vampire film parody, we imagine production will be set for the third quarter of 2024 – pushing us towards a late 2025 drop. Look for more production news during the fall festival season. Ottinger’s last fiction film was 2008’s The Korean Wedding Chest.
Elizabeth Báthory (The Blood Countess) and her maid take us on a wild hunt for blood and secrets from times gone by. On their adventurous journey, they desperately search for the precious lifeblood while also uncovering the dark history of their ancestors. But suddenly a mysterious book appears that poses a threat to their vampire kingdom. As they are pursued by their vegetarian nephew, his psychotherapist, two vampirologists and a tenacious police inspector and his assistant, things spiral out of control.
