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The fifth and final season of the global hit series “Babylon Berlin” has started shooting, and Beta Film has released a first-look image of lead Volker Bruch’s (“Generation War”) Weimar-era police investigator Gereon Rath on set.

In its first four seasons, “Babylon Berlin” sold to more than 140 territories and was watched more than 94 million times on Germany’s Ard Mediathek alone. Among its laundry list of awards, the series won the inaugural European Achievement in Fiction Series Award at the European Film Awards, four German Television Awards, the Grand Prize at the Seoul International Drama Awards, the Austrian Television Award Romy as “TV Event of the Year,” the Premios Ondas in Spain and the Magnolia Award of the Shanghai TV Festival.

“Babylon Berlin’s” writing-directing team of Henk Handlogten, Achim von Borries and Tom Tykwer will return for the show’s final season, as will its leads Bruch and...

World War II was a global conflict of enormous proportions. Divided between the Axis and Allied powers, each side engaged in numerous battles and faced significant casualties. The war was marked by many devastating events, such as internment camps, the Holocaust, and the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan. After the war ended, films and television shows were created to help others understand the events of WWII.

With every adaptation of WWII events, accuracy comes into question. The audience typically seeks content that provides deeper sources and authentic stories to gain a better understanding of the war. Although many shows have been produced about WWII, these particular series stand out as the most accurate portrayals of this global conflict.

Related10 Most Underrated WWII Movies

WWII movies are available in abundance for people to watch. But these are the ones that have gone under the radar and deserve more attention.

Nico Hofmann and Jan Mojto, two leading figures in the German TV industry, on Friday unveiled the upcoming slate for their new joint venture, announced earlier this year. Their company plans to make big-budget, high-end series out of Germany for the international market.

The first slate of projects includes several novel and nonfiction adaptations. They include: Tilmann Lahme’s Die Manns – Geschichte einer Familie, a biography of the legendary Mann family, including noble prize winner Thomas Mann and his brother Heinrich Mann, which is to be produced as a six-part television series set in the 1920s and told through the eyes of the younger generation, particularly the kindred spirits and eldest siblings Klaus and Erika Mann.

The group plans to adapt European Book Prize winner Maxim Leo’s best-selling novel Wo wir zu Hause sind and his latest book, Wir werden jung sein, as a limited series. The first is...

Two heavyweights of German television and film are uniting.

Nico Hofmann and Jan Mojto are teaming with Jan Wünschmann, a producer at Mojto’s company Beta, to create films and TV series in Germany and Europe. Projects will be targeted at the international market.

Hofmann, was the longtime boss of German production giant UFA, and Mojto said they are “connected by half a lifetime of producing” title such as TV event series The Tunnel in the early 2000s and newer series such as Generation War, Dresden, The Tower and The Same Sky.

“Jan Mojto and I have been close colleagues and friends for more than 20 years – our eye for programming, uncompromising quality, and passion for our profession unites us,” said Hofmann. “It is the next logical step in my career to join forces and produce together with Beta Film. The individuals and their creativity are the building blocks for a long-lasting bond.

Iconic German film and TV executive Jan Mojto is launching a partnership with longstanding friend and UFA head Nico Hofmann that will produce German and European series and films for the international market.

They are joined in the unnamed venture by Beta producer Jan Wünschmann.

The partnership was announced Wednesday, on the eve of the annual Berlin Film Festival. No projects were disclosed.

Hofmann and Mojto are connected by half a lifetime of producing. With “The Tunnel”, the duo pioneered the TV event genre in Germany in the early 2000s. Since then, two dozen collaborative and internationally successful television and film productions have followed. These include hits “Generation War,” “Dresden,” “The Tower” and “The Same Sky.”

“This partnership is the fulfillment of a long-held wish. Nico Hofmann is one of the best German producers; He is a gifted storyteller. His professional and personal qualities, which I have known for more than 25 years,...

Nico Hofmann, the long-time CEO and current chair of German production giant UFA, maker of Generation War, Deutschland 83 and Charité, is leaving the Fremantle-owned company to go solo, setting up his own production house and joining forces with long-time collaborator Jan Mojto of Beta Film.

Hofmann will be stepping down as chairman of UFA on March 1 and has signed an exclusive first-look deal with Mojto’s Beta Film, producer of Babylon Berlin, that will see Hofmann, Mojto, and Beta producer Jan Wünschmann co-produce German and European series and films for the international market.

Hofmann and Mojto have a history going back decades. The duo pioneered event television and helped elevate German drama to international prominence with such limited series, as The Tunnel (2001), The Tower (2012) and Generation War (2013). These award-winning dramas, co-produced between Mojto’s Beta and Hofmann’s UFA-owned production group TeamWorx (now UFA Fiction), were also ratings hits in Germany and internationally.

Sascha Schwingel has been named the new CEO of German TV production giant UFA, replacing Nico Hofmann, who will become chair of the Berlin-based company behind such series as Generation War, Deutschland ’83 and Ku’damm 56. UFA is part of global production giant Fremantle.

Hofmann, who has been CEO of UFA since 2017, joined the company in 1998, setting up UFA’s serial fiction group teamWorx (now UFA Fiction). He is largely credited with helping turn UFA into Germany’s leading television producer, with shows across all genres and on air on virtually every German channel and streaming service.

The group consists of four production units: UFA Fiction, which produces high-end drama such as Deutschland ’83, Charité and the recent Disney+ series Sam – A Saxon; soaps division UFA Serial Drama, whose long-running serials include Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten and Unter Uns; UFA Show & Factual, which produce shiny floor shows including the local versions...

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Benjamin Benedict, one of Germany’s leading producers of high-end TV drama, has joined German mini-major Leonine Studios.

As of Nov. 1, Benedict will join the management team of Leonine-owned W&b Television and run the production outfit together with Oliver Vogel, Max Wiedemann and Quirin Berg.

Benedict is currently managing director at German TV powerhouse UFA Fiction, where his small-screen success stories include period dramas Charite, Ku’Damm and the International Emmy-winning miniseries Generation War.

W&b Television, set up by The Lives of Others producer Wiedemann and Berg, has produced such cutting-edge series as Netflix’s time-traveling mystery drama Dark, gangster thriller 4 Blocks for TNT/Turner in Germany, as well as Sky’s crime mystery horror series Pagan Peak. The group is currently in production on the Amazon Prime series The Gryphon, an adaptation of Wolfgang Hohlbein’s fantasy bestseller.

Leonine, which is...

Berlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has added to its European Film Market slate “Love Thing,” starring top German actor Elyas M’Barek, whose credits include “The Collini Case.” Also on the slate is “Soul of a Beast,” which debuts its trailer below.

Despite the virtual nature of the EFM, the company has taken additional office space at the Marriott Hotel in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz.

“Love Thing,” which also stars Lucie Heinze, Peri Baumeister and Alexandra Maria Lara, is directed and written by Anika Decker, whose last feature “High Society” sold widely. Decker scripted box office successes like “Rabbit Without Ears,” which grossed $85 million.

“Love Thing” is produced by German production-distribution powerhouse Constantin Film, which has set its release for July 7. The producers are Rüdiger Böss and Philipp Reuter; the co-producers are Anika Decker and Jan Decker; and the executive producer is Martin Moszkowicz. Picture Tree will present a first teaser trailer to select buyers.

Munich-based sales agency Global Screen has sold crime drama “Dark Woods” to streaming service Walter Presents for the U.K., where it’ll be shown on Channel 4’s All 4 platform, and across the Nordic Region, via C More.

The drama, which was produced by ConradFilm and Bavaria Fiction on behalf of Ndr and Ard Degeto for Das Erste, was the most-watched show on Ard’s catch-up service in Germany this year, and was the German TV Award winner.

Julia Weber, head of acquisitions and sales at Global Screen, said: “We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of this highly original and sought-after series, across Scandinavia and in the U.K., where crime drama has proved to be a key genre and is hugely popular with viewers of all ages.”

The show, inspired by real-life-events, starts out in the summer of 1989, when the sister of high-ranking Hamburg police officer Thomas...

TVNow, Rtl Deutschland’s streaming service, high-flying Berlin-based production house X Filme Creative Pool and production-distribution powerhouse Beta Film are partnering on what looks like one of the biggest German drama series productions of 2021: “House of Promises,” (a working title).

Beta Film is handling world sales and will present first moving images of the series at October’s Mipcom trade fair in Cannes, it said Friday.

Described by Beta Film as a “high-end” and a “visually stunning drama,” the 12-hour series is currently shooting on location in Berlin, Brandenburg and the Saxon city of Görlitz. Set in Berlin in the 1920s, it captures the hopes of a dazzling decade and the dramatic turn of an era from the perspective of a young woman and a Jewish family, owner of a state-of-the-art department store at Berlin’s Torstrasse 1.

Award winning director Sherry Hormann directs episodes 1-6, once again focusing on “complex,...

Philipp Kadelbach, director and co-creator of the series “We Children From Bahnhof Zoo,” says his initial impulse when approached to helm the series was to steer well clear of what he saw as a fool’s errand, given the iconic status in Germany and elsewhere of Uli Edel’s 1981 feature film “Christiane F.,” which – like the series – is based on the book “Christiane F.: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo.”

“I said, ‘I’m not going to do this. I’m not crazy.’ Because it’s like a monument for so many people. And everybody would start attacking me because I’ve gone to tell this story again, and they really loved it,” he tells Variety.

However, having read Annette Hess’ scripts, he saw how she had approached the material in a different way. The film felt like it had a voyeuristic approach to the subject, he says. He resolved to...

Fremantle has near sold the world outside Asia on “We Children From Bahnhof Zoo” – thanks to a raft of sales that include a worldwide deal with Amazon Prime Video for the U.S., English-speaking territories and all Europe’s outstanding major markets.

Taking in further sales to HBO Europe, Nent Group and Russia’s More TV, the series, produced by Constantin Television and Amazon Studios and a modern reworking of the story of Christiane F., has currently closed more than 40 territories, Fremantle announced Monday.

Co-produced by the Czech Republic’s Wilma Film and Italy’s Cattleya, “We Children From Bahnhof Zoo” will open on Prime Video in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain and Benelux from April 9, and Italy on May 7.

HBO Europe has licensed 15 territories in Central and Eastern Europe, where it operates channels and streaming services, led by Poland and Hungary and the Baltic States.

When he was offered the lead role in Fabian —Going to the Dogs, a coming-of-age tell set in Berlin in the early 1930s, Tom Schilling wasn’t really interested in doing another period drama.

The German star, who played a post-war, avant-garde artist in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Oscar-nominated Never Look Away (2018), the seminal East Berlin playwright Bertold Brecht in Brecht (2019) from Heinrich Breloer, and a pacifist sent to the Eastern Front in WW2 series Generation War (2013), also wasn’t a fan of the Erich Kästner book the film was based on: a largely autobiographical novel about a would-be ...

When he was offered the lead role in Fabian —Going to the Dogs, a coming-of-age tell set in Berlin in the early 1930s, Tom Schilling wasn’t really interested in doing another period drama.

The German star, who played a post-war, avant-garde artist in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Oscar-nominated Never Look Away (2018), the seminal East Berlin playwright Bertold Brecht in Brecht (2019) from Heinrich Breloer, and a pacifist sent to the Eastern Front in WW2 series Generation War (2013), also wasn’t a fan of the Erich Kästner book the film was based on: a largely autobiographical novel about a would-be ...

International distributor Global Screen, part of Will Smith’s Telepool, has sold crime thriller miniseries “Dark Woods” to U.S., Canada, Spain and France, following its stellar ratings success in Germany.

Inspired by a true crime, unsolved for almost 30 years, the six-part show centers on a high-ranking police officer’s desperate search for his sister, and the family’s suffering. Starring Matthias Brandt (“Babylon Berlin”) and Karoline Schuch (“Balloon”), “Dark Woods” was directed by Sven Bohse, written by International Emmy Award winner Stefan Kolditz (“Generation War”) and produced by ConradFilm’s Marc Conrad, and Bavaria Fiction’s Maren Knieling and Jan S. Kaiser.

Each episode was the most watched show in the primetime schedule on its respective day of broadcast in Germany, and reached up to 20.2% market share in December. The miniseries is also the most-watched show in the Ard-Mediathek in 2020, with more than 10.7 million streams.

Canal Plus Group, French leading pay TV group,...

Madrid — In one of the first detailed breakdowns from a major European company of marketing strategies in the Series Mania/MipTV online marketplace, Germany’s Beta Film has announced that it will stage a virtual Beta Brunch on March 31.

Nobody will be offered virtual food, but the event will retain some of its flavor, going live at the same time at the traditional event, which also always takes place at midday on the markets’ Tuesday.

It remains to be seen how much of another highlight remains: Jan Mojto taking the stage to deliver a highly entertaining, anecdote-laced, 10-minutes-or-so speech. Mojto is billed this year, but as featuring along with Beta colleagues in an initial video presentation which will explain who is who at the ever-expanding Beta Film empire.

To retain the essence of a live event, however, clients will be provided with a personalized link, which will expire after the live-streaming of this introduction.

Constantin Television and Amazon Studios have revealed the lead cast – and have released the first photo of them on location – for their coproduction “We Children From Bahnhof Zoo.” The high-end series, inspired by the 1978 non-fiction book about teenage drug users in Berlin that was previously adapted as the shocking 1981 film “Christiane F.,” is being distributed internationally by Fremantle.

The series presents “a picture of the drugs and club scene in Berlin” that is “provocative” and “controversial,” according to a statement from the producers.

The Bahnhof Zoo clique at the heart of the show will be played by Jana McKinnon (Christiane), Michelangelo Fortuzzi (Benno), Lena Urzendowsky (Stella), Bruno Alexander (Michi), Jeremias Meyer (Axel) and Lea Drinda (Babsi).

As previously reported, Philipp Kadelbach is directing the eight-episode series. His credits include “Generation War,” about a group of young German friends going through World War II, BBC series “SS-gb,” based on Len Deighton’s novel,...

Production has started on German crime drama “Dark Woods,” based on the real-life 1989 disappearance of a woman who was the sister of a high-ranking German police officer. It will star Matthias Brandt (“Babylon Berlin”), Karoline Schuch (“Hanna’s Journey”), and August Wittgenstein (“Das Boot”). Silke Bodenbender (“Vater Mutter Morder”) and Nicholas Ofczarek (“Pagan Peak”) have also been cast in the series, which is for free-tv channel Das Erste.

Global Screen has international rights and will distribute the six-part drama. Bodenbender plays Barbara Neder, who went missing in Lower Saxony. Shortly before, two couples had been cruelly murdered in nearby woodlands.

The scripted series follows the efforts of her brother, a former senior police officer, to find her. Because the disappearance takes place outside his jurisdiction, he cannot officially investigate, but he sets out to solve the case, a quest for justice that continues past his retirement and ultimately sees him tracking a suspected serial killer.

Tim Greve, one of German television's most experienced and celebrated line producers, is joining local mini-major Constantin Film as production manager, Constantin announced Wednesday.

Greve, who joins Constantin from German TV group Ufa Fiction, has more than 25 years experience in small-screen production, from soap operas such as long-running hit Good Times, Bad Times to series including Amazon's Deutschland 83 and Deutschland 86 to the miniseries Generation War. Both Deutschland 83 and Generation War won international Emmys.

Greve will take over at Constantin on Sept. 1, joining Christine Rothe as production manager for the entire Constantin Film Group. As such, he will work on ...

Following “Colonia,”Beta Film and Oscar-winning director Florian Gallenberger are set to re-team on “The Turncoat,” a WW2 mini-series based on Siegfried Lenz’s bestselling novel by the same name.

Currently shooting in Poland and Germany, “The Turncoat” will boast a high-profile German cast including Jannis Niewöhner (“Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne”), Malgorzata Mikolajczak, Sebastian Urzendowsky (“The Counterfeiters”), Rainer Bock (“Never Look Away”) and Ulrich Tukur (“The Lives of Others”).

Dreamtool is producing “The Turncoat” for public broadcaster Ndr, Ard Degeto and Swr. Written by Gallenberger and Bernd Lange (“The Vanishing”), “The Turncoat” depicts the story of young Wehrmacht soldier Walter who is stranded in the no man’s land of the Polish forests starts questioning the meaning of duty, friendship and love.

“These are stormy times, even though we are the generation which has everything – peace, freedom and prosperity. We want to create a touching film that shows us...

Amazon is going global in a big way with the launch of 20 new and returning international series including titles from the likes of Amy director Asif Kapadia as well as a Japanese version of The Bachelorette.

It has ordered a raft of scripted and non-scripted titles from Germany, Italy, Spain, India, Japan and Mexico (full list below).

“We’re delighted to announce the commissioning of more than twenty new and returning series, to be produced in seven countries across three continents around the world. We know that customers watching Prime Video everywhere want to see authentic stories, set in their own countries, and to invest in characters that can reflect their own experiences and diversity,” said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. “We’re excited and committed to amplifying the voices of storytellers from all over the world and to bring their visions to life for our viewers worldwide.”

James Farrell,...

Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor) director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck on Martha's (Ina Weisse) marriage to the monstrous Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch), father to Ellie (Paula Beer): "You can sense she has a different spirit but yet she is so subjugated by everything that she can't even dare to live it."

Elements from Gerhard Richter’s life story inspired the role of Kurt Barnert, played by Generation War and Jan Ole Gerster's Oh Boy (aka A Coffee In Berlin) star, Tom Schilling, in the latest film from the director/screenwriter of the Oscar-winning The Lives Of Others. In Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor), Germany's Oscar submission for the 91st Academy Awards, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck sets the bar far higher for himself than he did for his Hollywood misfire The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (with Anne-Katrin Titze) on his...

A disused newspaper factory in the south of England is to be converted into a film studio complex. The Daily Mail printing press in Oxfordshire has been acquired by media company Rebellion, the games developer, motion capture firm and publishing outfit which owns the 2000 Ad comic book IP, which includes Judge Dredd. The complex is being lined up as a home for Duncan Jones’s Rogue Trooper film and Judge Dredd TV show Mega-City One. Six sound stages will be available at the 220,000 sq ft site, which is due to open in the spring. Rebellion founders Jason Kingsley and Chris Kingsley were producers on the 2012 feature film Dredd and set up Rebellion Productions in 2017 to develop and produce film and TV based on the company’s IP. Variety first reported news of the studio.

Shoot on hit German crime series Babylon Berlin by Tom Tykwer, Henk Handloegten and...

Just in time for Christmas comes the heartwarming story of “Perfume,” which follows a half-dozen friends so obsessed with the possibilities of smell that the death of one of them dredges up some extremely unpleasant things about their pasts.

The new series is based on the 1985 Patrick Süskind novel “Perfume,” which was previously adapted into the 2006 Tom Tykwer film “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” starring a pre-Bond Ben Whishaw, Alan Rickman, and Dustin Hoffman. This new TV venture brings the original story into a modern context, rather than the 18th-century French environs of the novel.

In updating the historical story, this six-part season also gets a detective show twist, with a group of investigators looking into the death of a singer. What they find is a group of one-time school friends, at least one of whom stumbled into the practice of using human scents as the basis for making a one-of-a-kind fragrance.

The Lives Of Others writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck returns to Venice, the setting for his second film The Tourist, with the world premiere of big-canvas European co-production Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor).

Tom Schilling, Paula Beer, Sebastian Koch and Saskia Rosendahl star in the period epic which charts the story of German artist Kurt Barnert (Schilling) who escapes East Germany but remains tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the Gdr-regime. When he meets fellow student Ellie (Beer), he is convinced he has met the love of his life and begins to create paintings that mirror his own fate and the traumas of a generation.

With a budget of around $20M the 188-minute feature is among the most expensive German-language films ever assembled. Sony Classics has U.S. and select territory rights (as they did on the brilliant Oscar-winner The Lives Of Others), Beta handles sales and was a co-producer.

Another win for Babylon Berlin: The biggest Asian TV festival in Shanghai has honored the Roaring Twenties-Drama as Best Foreign Series with the renowned Magnolia Award. The 16-hour show has beaten highly prestigious Us series such as David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and David Shore’s medical drama The Good Doctor. The Shanghai TV Festival jury states: “Babylon Berlin wins for its high production values, brilliant script, engaging characters, and thrilling story. It showed us a time in European history that still feels culturally and politically relevant.”

After sweeping five German Television Awards earlier this year, among them Best Drama Series, the Magnolia Award it is the next great success for the series by X Filme Creative Pool, Ard Degeto, Sky Germany and Beta Film. Praised as “the most bingeable new drama since The Crown…” (Vogue) and “fabulous and stunning” (The Guardian) by international press Babylon Berlin garnered fabulous ratings...

Some lesser-known wartime stories, such as Japan’s The Burmese Harp and the German-made Generation War, rank alongside the classics

No recent historical cataclysm has eclipsed the magnitude of the second world war. And thank God for that: the war was horrible! Its aftershocks are still felt in many current conflicts. The war touched every life differently, so it’s no wonder authors and film-makers keep returning to it, finding new stories to tell.

Related: The Zookeeper's Wife review – Jessica Chastain drama is wildly inconsistent

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Ufa Distribution teams up with Global Screen to sell So Viel Zeit, based on Frank Goosen novel.

The newly launched Ufa Distribution is teaming up with Munich-based Global Screen to handle international sales on SS-gb director Philipp Kadelbach’s new feature So viel Zeit (translated as So Much Time).

The adaptation of Frank Goosen’s eponymous novel about the rock band Bochums Steine, who make a comeback after 30 years when a band member learns that he is terminally ill, features a stellar cast including Jan Josef Liefers (Vier gegen die Bank), Jürgen Vogel (The Wave), Armin Rohde (Taxi), Matthias Bundschuh (Wir sind die Neuen) and Richy Müller (Schlussmacher) as the boys in the band.

In addition, Kadelbach and the producers of Ufa Fiction and Feine Filme have landed Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Matthias Jabs of the legendary band Scorpions to make a cameo appearance.

Backing for the co-production with public broadcaster Ard Degeto and Sky has come...

Stanley Tucci, Catherine Deneuve dramas join competition; TV dramas and Oleg Sentsov doc set to get world premiere.

The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.

Joining the festival in Out Of Competition berths are Stanley Tucci-directed Final Portrait and Catherine Deneuve drama Sage Femme.

James Gray’s The Lost City Of Z will have its interntional premiere while documentary The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov will have its world premiere.

Among TV world premieres are Amazon’s Patriot and BBC One’s SS-gb.

In total, 18 of the 24 films selected for Competitionwill be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.

For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year...

Stanley Tucci, Catherine Deneuve dramas join competition; TV dramas and Oleg Sentsov doc set to get world premiere.

The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.

Joining the competition are

18 of the 24 films selected for Competition will be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.

The Berlinale Special will present recent works by contemporary filmmakers, documentaries, and extraordinary formats, as well as brand new series from around the world.

Berlinale Special Galas will be held at the Friedrichstadt-Palast and Zoo Palast. Other Special premieres will take place at the Kino International. Moderated discussions will follow the screenings at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year. Audiences...

Gomorrah distributor Beta has taken a minority stake in the TV formats company.

Munich-based distributor Beta Film has acquired a minority stake in Dutch television formats firm Lineup Industries.

Long Lost Family distributor Lineup, which was founded by former Sony execs Ed Louwerse and Julian Curtis in 2014, will continue to operate independently but will help the German producer and distributor move further into light entertainment and formats.

Beta Film is best known for co-producing and selling high-end German TV dramas, such as Generation War, which aired on BBC2 and is currently working on Paula Milne-penned drama The Same Sky.

Lineup has struck a number of deals with UK indies and broadcasters.

ITV has ordered a Fresh One-produced remake of controversial Dutch format The Bullying Project [pictured], while Spun Gold piloted Come Dine With Me-meets-The X Factor-style project Beat My Guest for BBC daytime.

Louwerse said: “While we remain independent, this is such...

"Babylon Berlin," the path-breaking joint serial project of X-Filme, Ard Degeto, Sky and Beta Film, is finalizing its pre-production and will start shooting in April. The high-end series, set in the roaring 1920s in Berlin, will be produced until the end of the year. Created by showrunner Tom Tykwer (“Sense 8”, “Cloud Atlas”, “Run Lola Run”) and his writer/director team Achim von Borries (“Alone in Berlin”) and Hendrik Handloegten (“Good Bye, Lenin”), "Babylon Berlin" stars “Generation War”-lead Volker Bruch and multiple-award-winning and up-and-coming actress Liv Lisa Fries (“She Deserved It”). The four partners have already signed in for two seasons. X-Filme producer Stefan Arndt: “We’re particularly happy that we’ll be able to complete two series of eight episodes each during the first shooting. This shows how enthusiastic and confident all of the partners are in our joint project.”

Kutscher’s "Babylon Berlin," centering on police inspector Gereon Rath, delivers an atmospheric portrayal of Berlin as the most exciting city in the world of that time, a hotbed of drugs and politics, murder and art, emancipation and extremism.

Sky will broadcast the series in 2017 and Ard in 2018. As co-producer, Beta Film will be responsible for the worldwide distribution of the series.

Beta Film’s director Jan Mojto explains, “Made in Germany is also a hallmark of quality in television. Due to the subject, the creative energy invested in the project, the names involved, its high standards, and not least, its budget, the first international reactions to the project have been very positive. 'Babylon Berlin' doesn’t need to take second stage to any of the major international series.”

The broadcasting team at Sky Deutschland and Ard Degeto emphasized how unique this collaboration is going to be. In the words of Volker Herres, program director at Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen: “We would like to build on the incredible success of Volker Kutscher’s novels. These are exciting stories with a historical background, and we want to present them to German television audiences in a serial production that holds up to international standards. With this goal, we benefit from a collaboration between three strong partners so X Filme and Tom Tykwer can implement the detective series in grand style.”

“Babylon Berlin,” Carsten Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Sky Deutschland reports, “is an exceptional project and a perfect match for Sky – bold storytelling, an outstanding cast, and Tom Tykwer’s incredibly creative team. The cooperation between X Filme, Ard, Degeto, and Beta Film is an impressive example of a fruitful and fair collaboration where all the partners are striking a unique path for Germany and Austria. With 'Babylon Berlin,' we are adding an in-house German production segment to our exclusive international agreements with such major partners as HBO and Showtime – a direction we will be moving in even more in the future.”

And Christine Strobl, managing director of Ard Degeto adds, “'Babylon Berlin' is a special project and very important for Ard. With this series, Ard Degeto will be offering Das Erste audiences a real treat that can stand up to international comparison from both the narrative and visual points of view. With regard to cooperation and financing, such an exceptional project deserves an exceptional approach. I am looking forward to the upcoming start of filming – judging from the screenplays, we can expect some outstanding television.”

A special challenge for the three authors and directors, Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Hendrik Handloegten. “For a long time, we were searching for subject matter that could tell the story of this unique era in all its facets,” Tom Tykwer explains. “We finally found it in Kutscher’s novels. And after Achim, Hendrik, and I spent three years working intensively on the screenplay, I can hardly wait now to get started.”

Achim von Borries adds, “The final years of the Weimar Republic were a time of continual crisis and constant attacks from political extremists. A rapidly growing city with immigrants from all over the world was in the middle of it all – Berlin, the international melting pot, with the pressure constantly mounting. This was a source of inexhaustible material for us as authors. And to finally have the opportunity to portray the atmosphere of the late 20s is a challenge to us as directors – absolutely huge and incredibly exciting.”

For Hendrik Handloegten, the city of Berlin plays one of the key roles: “Berlin in the final Weimar years was characterized by its fast pace, freedom, and diversity. But soon it was too much speed, too much freedom, too much diversity. A city that is always becoming, but never is. In 'Babylon Berlin,' the city is the protagonist. And Berlin in 1929 is a bestial, monstrous, famished and satiated, exalted and down-to-earth, elegant and degenerate, perverse and chaste… and mysterious protagonist. The best thing that could happen to an author and director.”

Stefan Arndt adds, “We’re really looking forward to capturing this exuberant episode of Berlin’s history here in the city itself, thanks to all our partners and sponsors. A stunning outdoor set is being built right now in Babelsberg that will evoke so many impressions of the city at the time. Together with our experienced film artists from our previous productions, we are greatly looking forward to bringing the world of the 1920s to life in a TV series. For all of us, this project is the dawn of a new epoch in television production.”

Volker Bruch captivated millions of television viewers with his portrayal of Wehrmacht officer Wilhelm in “Generation War”. As one of the five leading actors, he won a special prize at the 2013 Bavarian TV Awards for his performance, as well as a German Television Award and Emmy Award.

Liv Lisa Fries won considerable acclaim in the Ard film “She Deserved it”, where she plays the aggressive teenager Linda who tortures her classmate to death. She was awarded the 2012 Golden Camera as Best Young Actress for her convincing performance, and also won the 2011 Günter Strack Television Award.

The chief editors of "Babylon Berlin" are Christine Strobl, Sascha Schwingel, and Carolin Haasis (Ard Degeto), Gebhard Henke and Caren Toenissen (Wdr), and Marcus Ammon and Frank Jastfelder (Sky Deutschland). The producers for X Filme are Stefan Arndt, Uwe Schott, and Michael Polle.

The project is sponsored by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Creative Europe Media, and the Nrw Film and Media Foundation.

The 16-part TVseries Babylon Berlin is based on Volker Kutscher’s bestselling crime thrillers.

Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Fries are to star in lead roles for Babylon Berlin, the most ambitious German TV production to date, based on Volker Kutscher’s internationally bestselling historical crime thrillers set in the Berlin of the Roaring Twenties.

Cast as the police inspector Gereon Rath, Bruch is already known for appearances in the internationally successful German TV series Generation War as well as such feature films The Reader, Young Goethe and Tour De Force, while Fries - as the shorthand typist Charlotte - has credits including The Wave, Boy 7 and Und Morgen Mittag Bin Ich Tot.

Tom Tykwer is serving as showrunner for the high-end 16-part series which he will direct with co-authors Hendrik Handloegten and Achim von Boerries.

Speaking on the eve of this year’s Berlinale, Tykwer revealed that this would be the first time he had...

After first being mooted here in Cannes three years ago, Beta Film’s 10-part Adolf Hitler miniseries is getting closer to production. France’s TF1 has come aboard the project (working title: Hitler) which is being developed with UFA Fiction in co-production with Beta Film for Germany’s Rtl. Generation War‘s Benjamin Benedict and Joachim Kosack are producing.

Based on historian Thomas Weber’s book Hitler’s First War, it aims to shed unprecedented light on one of history’s most hated and closely-examined figures. Each episode concentrates on one chapter in his rise to power, from the end of World War I to WWII and the atrocities of the Holocaust. Using previously unseen documents from the List Regiment, in which Hitler served during the First World War, the series will look at his personality and how he was shaped into what he became.

The series is currently in...