Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

GERARD DEPARDIEU

Depardieu football film seeks 500 Swiss extras

French movie director Frédéric Auburtin is looking for 500 extras in Switzerland for a film starring Gérard Dépardieu that he is shooting later this month and in September.

Published: 13 August 2013 11:19 CEST
Depardieu football film seeks 500 Swiss extras
Gérard Dépardieu (right) with FIFA President Sepp in Zurich earlier this year. Photo: AFP

With a budget of 16.5 million franc ($17.8 million), the film is about the history of football’s World Cup, the ATS news service reported.

Scenes will be shot in Zurich, Lucerne, Winterthur and Cham (in the canton of Zug).

Dépardieu visited Switzerland in January for the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony organized by FIFA, the Zurich-based governing body of world football.

In Auburtin’s film, he is set to play the role of Jules Rimet, the French football administrator credited with inventing the World Cup in 1930.

Rimet, who founded the French football team Red Star Saint-Ouen, was FIFA’s longest serving president from 1921 to 1954.

Distributor Vega Film announced in Zurich on Tuesday that the movie will be released in Switzerland before the World Cup begins in Brazil next year.

The film makers are looking for “European, African and Asian” men over the age of 25 as extras, according to a news release issued by the distributor.

Shooting is scheduled to wrap up in the Swiss locations by mid-September.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FOOTBALL

Trial over 2006 German World Cup corruption opens in Switzerland

Three former German football officials and ex-FIFA Secretary General Urs Linsi went on trial on Monday in Switzerland over suspicions that Germany bought votes to obtain the 2006 World Cup.

Published: 10 March 2020 03:24 CET
Trial over 2006 German World Cup corruption opens in Switzerland
Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

The three defendants have indicated that they will not be present at the hearing in Bellinzona for a variety of reasons, including fear of travelling because of coronavirus contagion.

Swiss Linsi, 70, former German Football Association (DFB) presidents Wolfgang Niersbach, 69, and Theo Zwanziger, 74, and 78-year-old former DFB General Secretary Horst R. Schmidt are being prosecuted for “fraud”.

They are accused by the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office (BA) of concealing from the DFB the true destination of a transfer of 6.7 million euros ($7.6 million today), paid in 2005 by the organising committee to former Adidas boss, the late Robert Louis-Dreyfus, via FIFA.

The case of former World Cup organising committee chairman Franz Beckenbauer is being heard separately because of the former Germany captain's poor health.

The investigation was prompted by a report in German publication Der Spiegel in 2015 that Germany had used a secret fund of 10 million Swiss francs (6.7 million euros at the time) to buy votes and obtain the rights to host the competition at the expense of South Africa.

Beckenbauer is suspected of having asked Louis-Dreyfus, to contribute to this fund shortly before the vote on the host in the summer of 2000.

Louis-Dreyfus was allegedly reimbursed by the German Football Association on the pretext of expenses related to a FIFA gala evening, which ever took place.

Zwanziger, Niersbach and Schmidt have also been charged with tax fraud in Germany and the case is expected to come to trial in the coming months. cpb/pb/td

SHOW COMMENTS