Hirschbiegel puts on a brave ‘Face’

A pair of Germany’s best film exports in director Oliver Hirschbiegel and actor Moritz Bleibtreu are reuniting on a new project backed by Miramax Germany. Variety reports that the pair who rocked the international scene with 2001’s Das Experiment are dipping into the thriller genre again with a fact-based tale on a Mafia hitman.

Angel Face is based on the novel by Andreas Ulrich called Das Engelsgesicht, Bleibtreu would wear the big shoes of Giorgio Basile, – the man they called “The Angel Face” in mafia circles and was for many years a feared contract killer for the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate. After his arrest in 1998, Basile became a state witness against the Italian mafia.

Filming begins early next year and should be ready for 2010. The picture will give Hirschbiegel a new lease on life – after his monster success in 2001 and his Hitler stuck in a bunker portrait Downfall, it is fair to say that his first Hollywood project in Warner Bros.’s The Invasion (Kidman/Craig) didn’t go to well.