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Too Close
(working title)
www.kanzaman.com
Too Close
Genre
Language
Budget
Director
Writer
Producers
Status
Script
Shoot
Locations
Drama Romance
English
12.000.000 !
TBD
David Wingeate Pike
Denise O’Dell & Mark Albela
& Lucette Legot
Attaching Director
Available (1st Draft)
2014
Natural Locations
& Studio Build
The action takes place in the last year of the war. Elke is
a beautiful young violinist who, in front of an orchestra
conducted by her lifelong friend Georg, performs for
Hitler at a ceremony marking his 55th birthday. A leader
in Hitler Youth, she falls passionately in love with Hasso,
an SS lieutenant. When Hasso is wounded in battle and
reassigned to Mauthausen, a concentration camp in
Austria, she follows him, arranging through her family
connections to work as a secretary in the camp.
SYNOPSIS
Confronted by the horrors of life inside an SS camp, she
is tormented by her Catholic conscience, and her
torment is made worse when the orchestra conductor
arrives in the camp as a prisoner. Georg finds a way to
put Elke in touch with the local Resistance, and Elke is
now ready to commit treason against the Reich. Hasso,
maddened by jealousy, sets out to kill Georg and
recover Elke, or else kill her as well... !
All this time, in the camp’s photo service, two Spaniards
who are employed there as assistants take the
opportunity to steal, and with the complicity of a heroic
Austrian woman, hide and ultimately save several
hundred photographs that will condemn Goering, Hess
and the other Nazi leaders facing the Nuremberg
Tribunal.
Casting: Wishlist
Daniel Brühl
Hasso Müller
Waffen SS Hero
Age 24
John Malkovich
Paul Ricken
SS Photographer
Age 50
Alicia Vikander
Elke Winter
Hitlerjugend leader
Age 20
Christoph Waltz
Vigo Mortensen
Karl Schulz
Head of the
Politische Abteilung
in Mauthausen
Age 42
The Locations
Austria
The Locations
Mauthausen
The Writer
David W. Pike
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DAVID WINGEATE PIKE was born in England and
educated at Blundell's School, McGill University and
Universidad Interamericana Mexico. He received
doctorates from the Université de Toulouse and
Stanford University, where he served as Assistant
Director at the Institute of Hispanic American and
Luso-Brasilian Studies. He is now Distinguished
Professor Emeritus of Contemporary History and
Politics at The American University of Paris and
Director of Research at the American Graduate
School of International Relations and Diplomacy. He
now resides in Paris.
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Author’s Notes
The events depicted here have an historical authenticity and factual accuracy. All the
characters, whether Nazis or victims of the Nazis, with the single exception of Hasso!Müller,
are drawn from facts pieced together over many years of interviewing survivors
and!examining the testimony given by SS and survivors at the postwar trials. The name of
the!protagonist Elke has been changed.
Mauthausen was the only SS camp to be built in stone, and the massive granite fortress
that!overlooks the Danube just 10 miles from Linz is the only SS camp to remain intact. It
was!also the only SS concentration camp (KL) to receive the label Category Three (Stufe
Drei),!the worst.
Because of its geographical position, at the center of the American, British and Soviet
frontal!advances (from northwest, south and east), Mauthausen was the very last SS camp
to be!liberated. The first unit to reach it was the US 11th Armored Division of Patton’s Third
Army,!beating the Soviets by the narrow margin of 60 km.
The total number of photographs that survived the war of an SS camp in actual operation
is!about 1,000. Of these, over 95% were stolen and saved at Mauthausen. The two men
most!responsible for saving these photographs were the two Spaniards employed in the
Photo!Service (Erkennungsdienst), Antonio García and Francesc Boix.
The Producers Denise O’Dell & Mark Albela & Lucette Legot
BABIEKA FILMS
c/ Alto de las Cabañas, 5
28231 Las Rozas
Madrid, Spain
Tel. + 34 91 640 60 86
Fax + 34 91 710 35 93
[email protected]
www.babieka.com
KANZAMAN FRANCE
10, Rue du Colisée
75008 Paris
France
Tel. +336 18 54 43 84
[email protected]
www.kanzaman.com
References
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