Sebastian Koch, Toni Servillo Set for Gabriele Salvatores’ Noir

Sebastian Koch, star of Oscar-winning German film “The Lives of Others,” and Toni Servillo, protagonist of Italy’s Oscar winner “The Great Beauty,” are set to topline “The Lüneburg Variation,” a noir based in the world of chess, directed by Gabriele Salvatores.

Salvatores – himself also winner of an Oscar for “Mediterraneo” – has started shooting in Trieste on “Lüneburg Variation,” which is based on the eponymous novel by Italian author Paolo Maurensig that has been translated into 25 languages. Nine weeks of principal photography are planned between Trieste and Rome.

The film will be distributed in Italy by RAI Cinema’s 01 Distribution while RAI Cinema International Distribution is handling international sales.

The book opens with the suicide of a wealthy Munich businessman named Dieter Frisch near Vienna, leading to flashbacks of a revenge plot orchestrated through the game of chess.

“It is the story of a duel that lasts more than 40 years, fought by two adversaries on the battlefield of a chessboard. Chess! The most violent sport in existence and, perhaps, the least cinematic. It’s a great challenge, and one I was happy to take on,” Salvatores said in a statement.

The director added that he would delve into “the violent, magical, esoteric and mysterious dimension of chess, that is, instead, truly cinematic!”

“Maurensig envisioned a film of half-light; darkness and fire. Compelling and cruel. I hope I can deliver just that…,” Salvatores went on to note.

Rounding out the chess-world noir’s main cast are German actor Damian Hardung (“Maxton Hall”); Thomas Prenn, who is from South Tyrol and starred in Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”; and Itay’s Eduardo Scarpetta (“My Brilliant Friend”).

“The Lüneburg Variation” is being lead-produced by Raffaella Leone and Andrea Leone through their Lotus Production, which is a Leone Film Group company, with RAI Cinema, in association with Vice Pictures and also in association with Italy’s Indiana and MDE.

“We are very happy to be working with Gabriele Salvatores, a filmmaker and director we have always loved for the mastery with which he takes you by the hand and transports you into his world, making you fall in love with cinema all over again — real cinema, great cinema with a capital C,” Raffaella Leone said in a statement.

Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, Riccardo Volpato, Marco Cohen, Benedetto Habib, Fabrizio Donvito and Daniel Campos Pavoncelli are also producers on the film, which is being supported by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission.

The key creative team on “Lüneburg Variation” comprises Diego Indraccolo as director of photography; Rita Rabassini as production designer; Patrizia Chericoni as costume designer; and Federico De Robertis as composer.