Deutsche Telekom’s first major original, “Wild Republic,” is set to bow April 15 on the telco giant’s Ott service MagentaTV after production was postponed last year due to the ongoing pandemic.
The eight-part adventure series follows a group of young offenders who end up fending for themselves high in the Alps after a mysterious death disrupts the experiential educational program in which they are taking part.
Created by Jan Martin Scharf, Arne Nolting and Klaus Wolfertstetter, the series is produced by Lailaps Pictures, X Filme Creative Pool and Handwritten Pictures in co-production with Deutsche Telekom, Arte and Ard broadcasters Wdr, Swr and One.
“Wild Republic” was initially inspired by Erwin S. Strauss’ 1979 book “How to Start Your Own Country,” which explored the micronation movement of the 1960s, according to Lailaps CEO Nils Dünker. Eric Bouley, now managing partner at Handwritten Pictures, helped develop the original premise while working at Lailaps.
The eight-part adventure series follows a group of young offenders who end up fending for themselves high in the Alps after a mysterious death disrupts the experiential educational program in which they are taking part.
Created by Jan Martin Scharf, Arne Nolting and Klaus Wolfertstetter, the series is produced by Lailaps Pictures, X Filme Creative Pool and Handwritten Pictures in co-production with Deutsche Telekom, Arte and Ard broadcasters Wdr, Swr and One.
“Wild Republic” was initially inspired by Erwin S. Strauss’ 1979 book “How to Start Your Own Country,” which explored the micronation movement of the 1960s, according to Lailaps CEO Nils Dünker. Eric Bouley, now managing partner at Handwritten Pictures, helped develop the original premise while working at Lailaps.
- 3/2/2021
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Munich-based sales agency Arri Media Intl.’s has signed a North American distribution deal with Rock Salt Releasing for “Curveball – A True Story. Unfortunately.,” which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Berlinale Special Gala section this year.
The film, co-written and directed by Johannes Naber, is released in German cinemas on Nov. 26, and will be released in North America by Rock Salt in the first quarter of next year.
The film tells the true story of how the Iraq war, with the involvement of the German government and secret service, was started based on faulty intelligence.
Bioweapons expert Dr. Arndt Wolf of the German Federal Intelligence Service (Bnd) is obsessed with the idea that, despite Un inspections, anthrax is still being produced in Iraq. Back home in Germany, Wolf’s superior Schatz assigns him as case officer for the Iraqi asylum seeker Rafid Alwan because...
The film, co-written and directed by Johannes Naber, is released in German cinemas on Nov. 26, and will be released in North America by Rock Salt in the first quarter of next year.
The film tells the true story of how the Iraq war, with the involvement of the German government and secret service, was started based on faulty intelligence.
Bioweapons expert Dr. Arndt Wolf of the German Federal Intelligence Service (Bnd) is obsessed with the idea that, despite Un inspections, anthrax is still being produced in Iraq. Back home in Germany, Wolf’s superior Schatz assigns him as case officer for the Iraqi asylum seeker Rafid Alwan because...
- 10/21/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
German star Louis Hofmann is set to topline Damian John Harper’s upcoming drama “Fresh,” a German-language adaptation of Scottish writer Mark McNay’s novel of the same name.
Hofmann plays a young man who must emancipate himself from his tyrannical older brother.
Unlike the book, which is set in the outskirts of Glasgow, the film’s story takes place in a working-class neighborhood near Duisburg in western Germany’s Ruhr Valley region, known as the country’s rust belt.
Harper describes the tale as “a mosaic of a ticking bomb, brutal memories and trauma-induced daydreams.”
“Fresh” is produced by Weydemann Bros., the production company behind last year’s hit Berlinale screener “System Crasher” as well as Harper’s 2018 award-winning drama “In the Middle of the River,” about a troubled Iraq vet in New Mexico seeking to avenge his sister’s death.
Harper’s longtime production partners, Jakob and Jonas Weydemann,...
Hofmann plays a young man who must emancipate himself from his tyrannical older brother.
Unlike the book, which is set in the outskirts of Glasgow, the film’s story takes place in a working-class neighborhood near Duisburg in western Germany’s Ruhr Valley region, known as the country’s rust belt.
Harper describes the tale as “a mosaic of a ticking bomb, brutal memories and trauma-induced daydreams.”
“Fresh” is produced by Weydemann Bros., the production company behind last year’s hit Berlinale screener “System Crasher” as well as Harper’s 2018 award-winning drama “In the Middle of the River,” about a troubled Iraq vet in New Mexico seeking to avenge his sister’s death.
Harper’s longtime production partners, Jakob and Jonas Weydemann,...
- 2/22/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
A loving tribute to Studio Babelsberg, the story of a family’s escape from Nazi Germany, a moving drama about young Palestinians and Israelis working together, and an adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s children’s novel “The Amazing Maurice” are among a wide-ranging selection of German films on offer at Afm this year.
Leading sales companies are presenting the gamut of romantic dramas, arthouse works, high-profile literary adaptations, family films and animated pics.
Picture Tree Intl. presents Martin Schreier’s “Traumfabrik,” a period-piece love letter to East Germany’s famed Defa film studios, now known as Studio Babelsberg. Produced by the late Tom Zickler, the romantic drama follows a young studio extra’s ambitious efforts to reunite with the French girl he loves after being separated by the construction of the Berlin Wall. The film, which opens the 50th Goa Film Festival on Nov. 20, has already sold in major territories around the world,...
Leading sales companies are presenting the gamut of romantic dramas, arthouse works, high-profile literary adaptations, family films and animated pics.
Picture Tree Intl. presents Martin Schreier’s “Traumfabrik,” a period-piece love letter to East Germany’s famed Defa film studios, now known as Studio Babelsberg. Produced by the late Tom Zickler, the romantic drama follows a young studio extra’s ambitious efforts to reunite with the French girl he loves after being separated by the construction of the Berlin Wall. The film, which opens the 50th Goa Film Festival on Nov. 20, has already sold in major territories around the world,...
- 11/8/2019
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Arri Media International has acquired international distribution rights to Andrei Konchalovsky’s Michelangelo biopic “Il Peccato” (“Sin”), which will have its world premiere as a Special Closing Event at the 14th Rome Film Festival (Oct. 17-27).
Written by Konchalovsky and Elena Kiseleva, the film is set in Florence in the 16th century and follows Michelangelo through “the agonies and ecstasy of his own creative genius, as two rival noble factions compete for his loyalty,” according to Arri.
Although widely considered a genius by his contemporaries, Michelangelo, played by Alberto Testone (“Suburra”), is reduced to poverty and depleted by his struggle to finish the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When his commissioner and head of the Della Rovere nobility Pope Julius II dies, Michelangelo becomes obsessed with sourcing the finest marble to complete his tomb.
The artist’s loyalty is tested when Leo X of the rival Medici family ascends to...
Written by Konchalovsky and Elena Kiseleva, the film is set in Florence in the 16th century and follows Michelangelo through “the agonies and ecstasy of his own creative genius, as two rival noble factions compete for his loyalty,” according to Arri.
Although widely considered a genius by his contemporaries, Michelangelo, played by Alberto Testone (“Suburra”), is reduced to poverty and depleted by his struggle to finish the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When his commissioner and head of the Della Rovere nobility Pope Julius II dies, Michelangelo becomes obsessed with sourcing the finest marble to complete his tomb.
The artist’s loyalty is tested when Leo X of the rival Medici family ascends to...
- 10/8/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Germany has chosen Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” as its entry for the newly re-branded International Feature Film award at the 92nd Academy Awards, it was announced Wednesday by promotional body German Films.
Produced by Kineo Filmproduktion and Weydemann Bros, the film won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, where it received its world premiere in February, and has since gone on to be a fixture on the festival circuit picking up a number of other prizes. It stars Helena Zengel as nine-year-old Benni, whose untamed energy in her wild quest for love drives everyone around her to despair.
The film was chosen from a list of seven films, submitted by their producers, by the eight members of the German selection committee, which consists of representatives from eight German cinema trade associations and institutions. German Films organizes the selection procedure for the German candidate for the Oscars’ International...
Produced by Kineo Filmproduktion and Weydemann Bros, the film won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, where it received its world premiere in February, and has since gone on to be a fixture on the festival circuit picking up a number of other prizes. It stars Helena Zengel as nine-year-old Benni, whose untamed energy in her wild quest for love drives everyone around her to despair.
The film was chosen from a list of seven films, submitted by their producers, by the eight members of the German selection committee, which consists of representatives from eight German cinema trade associations and institutions. German Films organizes the selection procedure for the German candidate for the Oscars’ International...
- 8/21/2019
- by Robert Mitchell
- Variety Film + TV
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