20th Century Fox's Twitter feed has launched a new poster for its eagerly-awaited World War II drama The Book Thief, featuring one of the first on-screen Nazi book burnings since Indy came face-to-face with the Fuhrer back in The Last Crusade. As Henry Jones would say: "Goose-stepping morons like these should try *reading *books instead of burning them."
Front and centre on the promo is the film's young heroine Liesel Meminger, played by Monsieur Lazhar's Sophie Nélisse. Even alongside actors of the calibre of Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson, Liesel's kindly and slightly-less-kindly foster parents in the story, the teenage Canadian actress looks set to steal the show as the gusty, soulful young orphan. Head over to the movie's trailer for a closer look.
In case you haven't read Markus Zusak's bestselling novel - a coming-of-age tale set in Nazi Germany that's been a fixture in young adult and popular lit charts since its publication in 2006 - the book thief is Liesel herself, who, after being taught to read by Hans Hubermann (Rush), stalks the streets of Molching purloining hardbacks from the mayor's library.
Along the way, she falls in with Jewish fist-fighter Max (Ben Schnetzer), who has been secreted away from prying Nazi eyes in the Hubermans' cellar, and various local children, including muddy-kneed scamp Rudy (Nico Liersch). The story traces Liesel's personal development, both through her relationships and through the books she steals and reads, all against the backdrop of the Nazi state. She eventually writes the story of her own life, as the war gets closer and closer to home.
The Book Thief will be out in the UK cinemas on January 31, 2014, or November 15, 2013 in the US. Check out the November issue of Empire, hitting news stands on September 26, for more from the film's Berlin set.