Hoffman will play Guiseppe Baldini, the perfume maker, and Rickman will be Antoine, the merchant father of a young woman who becomes the subject of obsession for Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the central character in the film, to be played by British actor Ben Whishaw. Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run") will direct the picture, which he co-wrote with Constantin founder Bernd Eichinger and Andrew Birkin. Suskind closely guarded the feature film rights to his book.

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