Steven Spielberg’s company Amblin Partners acquired the rights to shoot a biopic about German racer Jutte Kleinschmidt, the first and only woman in history to win the Dakar rally. According to Variety, Amblin Partners will also be transferred the rights to Kleinschmidt’s memoirs “My victory at the Dakar”, published in 2010.
The film will be produced by David Litch and his wife Kelly McCormick (they had previously worked together on The Fast and the Furious: Hobbs and Shows, Deadpool 2, Explosive Blonde and Division), as well as David Kaufman and Annie Marter .
In addition, Jutta Kleinschmidt herself, who already has little experience in cinema, will join the production team. The athlete repeatedly appeared in documentary projects, and in 2009 played a cameo role in the fantastic thriller Anthony Waller's “Horror at a depth of 9 miles”.
The script for the biopic will be written by Greta Heinemann, who grew up on the Bavarian-Austrian border - very close to the place where Kleinschmidt lived. Heinemann is known for the series "Naval Police: New Orleans" and "Good Girls."
First and only
Jutta Kleinschmidt was born in 1962 in Cologne, but her childhood passed in the Bavarian Berchtesgaden. The future athlete bought her first motorcycle at the age of 18. She was educated in physics and got a job at BMW, where she worked for six years.
Kleinschmidt first appeared on Dakar in 1987 as a spectator. However, it was simply not interesting for her to watch what was happening on the track: together with the riders, she covered the entire route with her own motorcycle.
Next year, the athlete held a marathon as a participant, again on her motorcycle.
- © Jutta Kleinschmidt
In 1992, Kleinschmidt quit BMW, changed her motorcycle to a car, and took up her main hobby - motorsport.
Already in 1997, Kleinschmidt won the special stage of the Dakar rally, which was previously unsuccessful for women. Two years later, the athlete took third place in the overall standings, and in 2001, speaking for the Mitsubishi team, she became the first and only woman to win the race.
Jutte Kleinschmidt's own record could not be repeated. In 2002, the racer joined the Volkswagen team. Kleinschmidt in the same team with Fabrika Pons took eighth place in the overall standings and second among monoprivodnyh cars. In 2005, the team took third place, and a year later the athlete did not agree with Volkswagen to renew the contract. At the same time, according to the portal Motorsport.com, later the racer complained of sexual harassment by the former team leader Chris Nissen.
The last time Jutta Kleinschmidt took part in the Dakar rally in 2007 in the X-raid team, and took 15th place with her navigator Tina Turner.
In recent years, Kleinschmidt does not participate in such serious races, but she did not leave motorsport. So, since 2018, the athlete has been president of the rally raid commission of the International Federation of Motorsport (FIA).
According to Variety, the Dakar rally marathon (formerly also known as the Paris Dakar Rally) is often called the most dangerous race on the planet. Some of the routes run through the desert, where there are no roads at all. The weather conditions - sandstorms or rains complicate the task of the participants. The race has been held for over 40 years - since 1978. For all this time, “Dakar” claimed the lives of more than 70 people.