Hitler is Targeted for Assassination in First Trailer for '13 Minutes'

Other movies have told stories of attempts to kill Adolf Hitler, most recently in Quentin Tarantino's completely fictional Inglourious Basterds, but what about the man who actually came the closest to doing it? German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who depicted Hitler's final days in his Oscar-nominated film Downfall, is back in similar territory with 13 Minutes, only this time he's telling the story of Johann Georg Elser, a regular guy who nearly assassinated the Nazi leader.

Starring Christian Friedel (The White Ribbon), the film centers on Elser, a carpenter who in 1939 put in motion an elaborate plot to assassinate Hitler using a time bomb of his own construction. The bomb was to go off during a Nazi convention in Munich, and while the bomb did detonate, Hitler escaped while eight others were killed. The film recounts the factors that drove Elser to do what he did.

Hirschbiegel's last film was the much-maligned biopic, Diana, so hopefully this will serve as a fitting comeback. The reviews out of Berlin earlier this year were pretty mixed, though. 13 Minutes has yet to gain a U.S. date but opens in the U.K. on July 17th.