Based upon director Helmut Dietl's experience of trying to adapt Patrick Süskind's novel "Das Parfüm" into a movie. Uhu Zigeuner is based upon Dietl, while Jakob Windisch is based upon the author Süskind. Oscar Reiter is based upon producer 'Bernd Eichinger' who eventually would turn the novel into a film, Le Parfum, histoire d'un meurtrier (2006).