H2O sign Lajos Koltai to two films

Lajos Koltai

by Mike Goodridge
May 16, 2007
Screendaily.com

Cannes, France -- Andras Hamori and Mark Horowitz’s H20 Motion Pictures has signed Lajos Koltai to direct two features – Under The Frog and Born Of Fire.
Oscar-nominated cinematographer Koltai directed Hungarian Holocaust epic Fateless and next month’s US release Evening for Focus Features with a cast including Meryl Streep, Claire Danes, Glenn Close, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson.
Under The Frog, set to shoot in Hungary and Germany in November, is a co-production with New York’s Vox3 Films.
Hamori will produce alongside Christina Weiss Luric, Steven Shainberg and Andrew Fierberg, and H20 will start selling here.
The company is in advanced talks with Germany’s EuroArts and Ireland’s Element Pictures to join the production.
Based on Tibor Fischer’s novel, a love story set against the backdrop of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. Lindsey Shapiro and Dezso Magyar have written the screenplay.
Budgeted in the $50m range, Born Of Fire is the story – written by Axel Melzener and Heiko Burkardsmaier - of 16th Century English cannon-maker Adam Dreyling.
He was a superstar of his day in perfecting the most effective weapon of his time but to assure the Protestant government of his loyalty, the Catholic Dreyling’s wife and two children are taken hostage by the queen’s secret service.
The film is budgeted in the $50m range and will feature epic battle scenes. “It is a true European story which is going to be a European multi-country co-production,” said Hamori.