Musical Version of THE THIRD MAN Planned for 2016

Negotiations with the owner of the rights, Studiocanal and the Graham Greene Estate, are complete. Now the creative team for THE THIRD MAN - THE MUSICAL is being put together. The premiere is planned for 2016.

The Oscar winning American English cult film by Graham Greene and Carol Reed, which is connected with Vienna as few others are and once more drew international attention to the city, now serves as the basis for a musical, and is being developed, produced and premiered here in Vienna by Vereinigte Bühnen Vienna.

The City of Vienna and Vereinigte Bühnen Vienna (VBW) are pleased and proud of this cultural project, and the licensor has faith in VBW and Vienna as the location for staging the premiere: City Councillor for Culture Dr. Andreas Mailath-Pokorny: "Vienna has history and there are countless stories about it worth telling. One of them is certainly "The Third Man". As City Councillor for Culture of this city, I am very pleased that it is VBW which will be creating a piece of musical theatre from this material."

Thomas Drozda, VBW Managing Director: "You could really call this a successful coup. The rights to this cult film were fiercely contested! The fact that VBW was awarded the exclusive bid is an honour for our company and international appreciation of our artistic work."

Christian Struppeck, VBW Artistic Director: ""The Third Man" is a concept not only in Vienna, but also worldwide. This cult film is still very closely connected with the city of Vienna even so many years after it came out. I am proud that we were able to secure the rights to develop and produce a musical from this material, thus giving it the only worthy location for its premiere - namely Vienna."

Studiocanal: "We are very pleased to have found such an outstanding and well known Viennese cultural and theatrical company as Vereinigte Bühnen Vienna as a partner to bring this great storyline, which plays out in Vienna, onto the stage. Nothing would be more appropriate than premiering a musical like this at the original location."

On the trail of Harry Lime through the Vienna of the post-war period Vienna, 1947: The American author Holly Martins travels to Europe to visit his old friend Harry Lime in occupied Vienna. However, on Martin's arrival he learns that his friend has died in a car accident. At his funeral he meets a British officer who tells him that his friend Lime was an unscrupulous black marketeer. As Martins does not believe him, he starts his own investigations. He meets Lime's lover Anna Schmidt, who has fled from the Russian sector of the occupied city, and helps him in his enquiries. Martins soon discovers, though, that his search for the truth is not without danger - he quickly finds himself in the midst of fraud, corruption and murder. The hunt finally leads him to the "third man" in the underground sewer network of post-war Vienna. Martins soon has to acknowledge not only that there are contradictions in the reports of the circumstances of Harry Lime's accident, but also that his friend was clearly not the man he seemed to be.