Jan Ole Gerster, Tom Schilling Reteaming on ‘Imperium’ (Exclusive)

Jan Ole Gerster and Tom Schilling, the director and star, respectively, of 2012 sleeper Oh Boy (aka A Coffee in Berlin) are teaming up for their next film, an adaptation of Christian Kracht‘s best-seller Imperium.

Schilling will star as August Engelhardt, a radical vegetarian and nudist who left Germany in 1902 to set up a utopian colony on a South Sea island. His malnourished body was found on a beach in 1919. Kracht’s novel, based on Engelhardt’s life, is published in the U.S. by Macmillan imprint Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Oh Boy, Gerster’s debut film, was a surprise box-office hit in Germany. The laconic comedy, shot in black and white, grossed over $2 million locally. It also beat out more high-profile contenders, including Cloud Atlas, to win top prize at Germany’s equivalent to the Oscars, the Lola Awards. Music Box acquired the film and released it as A Coffee in Berlin, earning around $150,000 in the U.S.

Kracht also is on a run following the release of Finsterworld, a dark comedy whose script he co-wrote together with his wife, the film’s director Frauke Finsterwalder. Finsterworld has won multiple awards, including best supporting actress at the Lolas last year for star Sandra Huller.

Schilling, who also starred in the International Emmy-winning miniseries Generation War, appears in Simon Curtis‘ upcoming feature Woman in Gold — alongside Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds and Daniel Bruhl — which will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival next month.

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