EXCLUSIVE: Michael Ende, best-known for The Neverending Story series and writer of Momo has cast Alexa Goodall (A Gentleman In Moscow) to take on the leading role as young orphan girl Momo in an English language adaptation of Momo, one of his best-loved fantasy books.
Araloyin Oshunremi of Top Boy and Heartstopper fame joins Kim Bodnia (Killing Eve and The Witcher) Claes Bang of The Square Laura Haddock from Transformers The Last Knight Claes Bang (The Square), David Shutter (Charlie’s Angels) and Martin Freeman from both series (Hobbit and Sherlock) for this unique cast.
Deadline can share an exclusive first look of Goodall in Momo, currently filming in Croatia and Slovenia.
Christian Becker of Christian Ditter Film Productions in Germany will produce and direct this international bestseller which has sold 13 Million copies globally and been translated into 50+ different languages since publication. Christian Ditter secured rights for this novel years ago via an off-the-radar deal that provided him with both creative freedom as well as financial compensation from rights owner Penguin Random House for an undisclosed deal, along with rights from publisher Simon & Schuster who secured rights back then and then simultaneously licensed it under an “under the radar deal.”
Story follows Momo, a young orphan girl living amongst the remains of an ancient Roman amphitheater and making friends within her community. Unfortunately, when an international corporation starts taking away everyone’s time – including Momo herself! – their relationships begin deteriorating quickly as nothing remains for anyone to do but fight against time thieves together with Master Hora who protects time itself in time’s name – before all is lost forever.
Momo was produced by Rat Pack Filmproduktion in association with Constantin Film Production and Westside Filmproduction under Michael Ende Productions/Pakt Media’s direction.
Constantin will distribute Momo across German-speaking territories while Rocket Science handles international sales rights globally and plans on unveiling it before next week’s Cannes Film Festival.
Becker produced and Amara Palacios was creative producer on this production while Martin Moszkowicz and Oliver Berben served as executive producers, while Roman Hock and Wolf-Dieter von Gronau co-executive produced. Ditter wrote and directed Momo from scratch based on its novel source material; funding sources included FFF Bavarian Filmfund, MBB Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FFA Federal Film Funding (FFAF), DFFF German Film Funding (DFFF GFF), as well as Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC).
Ditter and Becker previously collaborated on popular German film franchises such as Crocodiles and Vicky the Viking (Vicky And The Treasure Of The Gods), both produced by Becker as one of Germany’s top producers – such as Dennis Gansel’s 2008 thriller The Wave; Jim Button franchise; Vicky The Viking and Suck Me Shakespeare (aka Fuck You Goethe), Suck Me Shakespeare as well as Netflix thriller Blood Red Sky via Rat Pack which is owned by German giant Constantin.
Ditter has earned widespread acclaim for his German and English-language films and series including Netflix’s Biohackers, Lily Collins-starrer Love Rosie from New Line Cinema; How To Be Single from Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann and Alison Brie at New Line; Isla Fischer/Greg Kinnear comedy The Present from IFC/New Line/New Line Cinema etc.
