With only three stellar features to her name in the last two-plus decades, The Forest for the Trees, Everyone Else, and Toni Erdmann, every new film from Maren Ade comes with much anticipation. While she’s also stayed busy producing no shortage of great work with Tabu, Arabian Nights, Western, In My Room, The Whistlers, Ahed’s Knee, Corsage, About Dry Grasses, and more, the German filmmaker is now working on her fourth feature.
In an interview with Screen Daily, Komplizen Film producer Janine Jackowski revealed Ade is scripting her next film Zauberwort (aka Magic Word), with plans to shoot in 2026, which means a festival premiere is still likely three years away. “[Ade] is writing very intensely. She is working very hard,” said Jackowski, though was tight-lipped about any other details on the project.
As for whether we’ll ever see that U.S. remake of Toni Erdmann, which at one point had the likes of Jack Nicholson and Kristen Wiig attached, alongside director Lisa Cholodenko, it’s not looking likely. “It was at Paramount but there were many changes at the company and it has got a little bit stuck over there,” said producer Jonas Dornbach. “[There] is a question mark [over] what will happen. The script [by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner] was amazing, I really liked it.”
As we await more news on Ade’s next feature, watch a masterclass she gave back at the 2016 New York Film Festival.