MARCH 4, 2006

Capote producer eyes Hailwood movie

German businessman Michael Ohoven, the man behind the Infinity Media film company is planning to make a film about the life of Mike Hailwood. Infinity has been in business for six years and is now a leading independent film maker and financier. Ohoven, a former RTL executive, was trained as a financier with Commerzbank but has shown a talent for finding not only money but also good stories for his movies and is currently enjoying much success with Capote,a film about the life of writer Truman Capote. The film, which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Chris Cooper, has been nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture.

The company has been working closley with Hailwood's widow Pauline and has set writer Paul Pender at work on a script. Pender is best known for his work of "Evelyn", a film about a man fighting to get his childen out of an orphanage, which starred Pierce Brosnan. Pender is a graduate of Britain's National Film and Television School who won a BAFTA Award and an Oscar for a film for BBC Scotland in 1995 called "Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life".

Mike Hailwood, known as "Mike the Bike" won nine World Championships in motorcycle racing before switching to cars. He won the European Formula 2 title for John Surtees in 1972 and in 1973 won the George Medal for pulling Clay Regazzoni from the burning wreckage of his car at the South African Grand Prix. In 1974 he broke both legs in a crash at the Nurburging but in 1978 he returned to competition to win the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man riding a Ducati. He then retired from racing but in March 1981 was killed in a road accident with his daughter when their car was in collision with a truck.