The story (which was turned into a 1930 Oscar-winning film, and remade again as a TV movie in 1979) focuses on a group of German soldiers’ extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and their subsequent feelings of disconnection from society upon returning home after the battles.
Up until she was recently ousted by Catherine Hardwicke with Twilight, Leder was Hollywood’s biggest money-making female director (a title gained via her 1998 meteor disaster epic, Deep Impact). She’s been away from the big screen for a few years now, working in the TV industry (where she first made her name) and she recently directed the season finale of Luck, the forthcoming Michael Mann-produced HBO series that stars Dustin Hoffman.