A trailer dropped yesterday for Georgetown, a movie starring (and directed by) Christoph Waltz as a social-climbing murderer who’s based on Albrecht Muth, the 47-year-old man who was convicted of killing his 91-year-old wife, Viola Drath, in their Georgetown row house in 2011. The film will debut in theaters on May 14 and On Demand on May 18.
Inspiration for the movie comes from journalist Franklin Foer’s New York Times story The Worst Marriage in Georgetown, published in 2012. Plenty of Washington power players make appearances in the article, including Antonin Scalia and Dick Cheney. The trailer itself features images of Georgetown row houses and mentions of parties at the couple’s Q Street home.
Events in the film are apparently somewhat fictionalized. The character based on Muth—an eccentric German native who pretended to be an Iraqi general—is named Ulrich Mott in the film. His 91-year-old wife, Viola Drath, is renamed Elsa Brecht (she’s played by Vanessa Redgrave). Georgetown is Waltz’s debut as a director.
Watch the trailer here:
Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Northeast DC.
