`Downfall` director joins biopic of Nazi resistance fighter

Los Angeles: Oliver Hirschbiegel, director of the Oscar-nominated Hitler drama `Downfall`, has signed on to direct an upcoming biopic on lesser-known Nazi resistance fighter Georg Elser.

Elser, a simple carpenter, attempted to assassinate Hitler on November 8, 1939, reportedly. Elsner was arrested on the Swiss border and sent to a concentration camp. He was killed there in 1945, just a few days before the end of the war, on Hitler`s direct order. The film stars Christian Friedel as Elsner, Burghart Klaussner as the head of the Nazi`s criminal police and Johann von Bulow (The Stranger in Me) as Gestapo head Heinrich Muller. Katharina Schuttler plays Elsner`s girlfriend Elsa, who knew nothing of his plans. Fred Breinersdorfer penned the script to `Georg Elser` which will follow the resistance fighter from his early days living in the Swabian Alps to the assassination attempt and his final hours at Dachau concentration camp.