‘Girl With the Pearl Earring’ Helmer Peter Webber to Direct World War II Drama About Family Behind Leica Camera Brand (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comLeo Barraclough International Features Editor Peter Webber, who helmed the Oscar-nominated “Girl With the Pearl Earring,” is to direct a film about the family behind the Leica camera brand, who helped many Jewish people escape Germany during World War II.
Webber has teamed up with Red Panda Films’ Martin Serene and Franziska Morai, also the film’s screenwriter, Christine Guenther of Fireglory Pictures, Birgit Gernboeck and Versa Studios to produce the film.
Leica was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869 as a manufacturer of microscopic lenses, but in the 1930s Ernst Leitz II took the risk of mass producing the first 35mm compact camera, an invention that optical engineer Oskar Barnack had worked on for over two decades.
The camera was revered by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson. “However, the revolution of the Leica camera is only half of the story,” Webber said. “Hardly anyone is aware that Ernst Leitz II, a Christian and committed democrat, used the family’s company as a gateway to help persecuted Jews escape Germany in World War II.
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