German Producer To Film Yorkshire Village Novel

Julia Clarke - successful Yorkshire authorA teenage novel by Harrogate writer Julia Clarke is to go into production with Bavaria Films, one of Germany's biggest film producers.

Bavaria Film - one of the top German producersSummertime Blues, is set in villages around Harrogate. Bavaria Films acquired rights to the novel following its hardback publication in Germany and will make it as a co-production with Munich Film School. Shooting will begin in locations around Munich in September.

Director will be Marie Reich, a Munich Film School MA student.Her last film Musik, Nur Wenn Sie Laut Isst – Music, Only Loud – which she wrote, directed and edited, won the Friedrich-Wilhelm Murnau Award in January after being praised at the Hofer Filmtage Festival in Munich.

Summertime Blues tells the story of a teenage boy, Alex, left to his own devices during a long summer after his mother and father split and his mother moves North after falling for an American actor appearing in a Yorkshire TV soap. The Book was originally published by Oxford University Press.
 
Reich, 26, who has been working as a film editor in London, says: "Bavaria Films is always looking for important stories. Summertime Blues is a wonderful novel. I was captivated by the main character Alex and the two girls, Fay and Louie. "I want to make films with good strong characters and Summertime Blues has these as well as a really great story. We love this book."
 
The film will be made for general release throughout Germany. If successful, it could be released elsewhere, including Britain.

Yorkshire - setting for Summertime Blues

Clarke is a former actress and teacher who started writing almost 20 years ago. She has had six adult novels and seven teenage novels published.

She says: "The idea that creative people in Germany are working on my characters and story is incredibly exciting and uplifting. Marie Reich loves animals and the countryside and came to Harrogate to visit us and see where the book is set. She has the same feel for the novel as I did when writing it and I am sure the film will be true to the story and very engaging."