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Babylon Berlin To Air On Sky Germany In October
A Game Changer In German Series & Storytelling
Liv Lisa Fries, star of Babylon Berlin says: "2016 was a year full of Babylon Berlin, shared with many great colleagues, inspiring scenes, analogue set-ups and three wonderful directors. The shoot was inspiring, challenging, harmonious and stimulating. I´ve danced a lot, I´ve
talked a lot, laughed and cried, I was euphoric, I was Charlotte Ritter."
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X Filme Creative Pool, ARD, Sky and Beta Film have presented first footage of their collectively produced series Babylon Berlin to buyers at EFM. The 16-hour-show by the author/director trio Tom Tykwer, Henk Handloegten and Achim von Borries will be aired on Sky Germany starting on October 13th and by ARD later in 2018.
Liv Lisa Fries, star of Babylon Berlin says: "2016 was a year full of Babylon Berlin, shared with many great colleagues, inspiring scenes, analogue set-ups and three wonderful directors. The shoot was inspiring, challenging, harmonious and stimulating. I´ve danced a lot, I´ve talked a lot, laughed and cried, I was euphoric, I was Charlotte Ritter."
Co-producer Beta Film, also handling the world sales, signed deals with Sky UK, Sky Italy, Spanish premium subscription platform Moviestar +/Telefonica and the Belgium Pay TV partner Telenet. SVT Sweden, NRK Norway, DR Denmark, YLE Finland and RUV. Iceland bought Babylon Berlin on the script. Ongoing negotiations with the US are almost finalized.
Babylon Berlin, was shot in Berlin and surrounding areas as well as in North Rhine Westphalia/Germany, from May to December 2016. Tom Tykwer calls the shoot intense: "After almost three years of working on the script, finally getting on set was an unbelievable joy. We had 180 days to shoot, sometimes working with two and even three units at the same time. In hindsight, it is unbelievable that we even were able to do that. Our fantastic team is to thank for that!" Putting emphasis on the collaboration with Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten, Tykwer says: "We wrote and directed the whole series together. There isn´t a single episode on which all three of us didn´t work on."
Volker Bruch stars as Gereon Rath in Babylon Berlin
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Producer Uwe Schott adds: "With our unbelievably dedicated team of over 400 people, we could make 1920´s Berlin come back to life. This is also due to support by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the German Motion Picture Fund and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, all of whom we would like to thank. We´d also like to thank the City of Berlin for their immense support."
Carsten Schmidt, CEO of Sky Deutschland, commented: "In the past weeks and months I´ve had the opportunity to peek over the artists´ shoulders as they were working at the Studio Babelsberg. What I have seen left a deep impression on me, really made me feel good about the project. Babylon Berlin will change German series, both because of how it´s made but also the way it tells its story. I am really looking forward to its start on Sky on October 13th." Babylon Berlin will screen starting October 13th, 2017 and has the 8:15 pm prime time slot on Sky Atlantic.
In 2018, Babylon Berlin will air for ARD. Volker Herres, programme director of the Erste Deutsche Fernsehen, comments: "Babylon Berlin is a cinematic event, in a class of its own. That´s how we are planning to present it to a large audience, in a compact rhythm. We are also planning to accompany the series with a historical documentary about this era of change, which is so very topical today. And we have the directive "online first" – our online media platform will have the series available for streaming before it can be seen on TV. With this production, we went down a new path – which took some courage. And with our audience in mind, I can already say: It was truly worth it.
Babylon Berlin, was shot in Berlin and surrounding areas as well as in North Rhine Westphalia/Germany.
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Christine Strobl, managing director of ARD Degeto, adds: "With Babylon Berlin, German TV series have reached a level of international competitiveness. We have made a precedent in financing this project, which will undoubtedly change the way things are done for future series. Babylon Berlin isn´t merely a historical crime show about 1920´s Berlin, much rather it represents the birth of a new, modern and unique world in which Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Fries simply shine as Gereon and Charlotte."
Jan Mojto, CEO of Beta Film, notes: "We are very pleased that the distinctiveness and quality of Babylon Berlin, on which we counted on from the start, was equally convincing to others now as it was to us then. SVT Sweden, NRK Norway, DR Denmark, YLE Finland and RUV Iceland already decided to buy on a script basis and are now to be joined by Sky Italy, Sky UK, the Spanish premium subscription platform Moviestar +/Telefonica and the Belgium Pay TV partner Telenet. In the U.S.A., France and other European territories and in Latin America, negotiations are about to be completed shortly.
Babylon Berlin is based on the internationally bestselling series of novels by Volker Kutscher and tells the story of police inspector Gereon Rath, who conducts his investigations in 1920´s Berlin, in a cabinet of curiosities and most exciting city of the world, between drugs and politics, murder and art, emancipation and extremism. Babylon Berlin's lead actors are Volker Bruch as Gereon Rath, and Liv Lisa Fries as Charlotte.
Babylon Berlin is produced by X Filme Creative Pool, ARD, Sky and Beta Film. 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, co-producers for Beta Film are Jan Mojto and Dirk Schürhoff.
The Project is supported by Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg, Creative Europe Media, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and the German Motion Picture Fund.
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