 |
Cannes, 8. April 2013. Even before MipTV began, Beta Film has sold the highly acclaimed event production Generation War to several countries worldwide and, rather unusually for German productions, to various English speaking territories. US distributor Music Box, who also released “The Millenium Trilogy” and Mankell’s “Wallander”, is planning a theatrical release of the six hour Band-of-Brother style ZDF/teamWorx/Beta Film-mini-series in major cities across the US, followed by TV, VoD and Home Video. In the UK Arrow Film picked up all rights, including theatrical, and in Australia a deal was signed with EOne/Hopscotch. In Sweden, public channel SVT will show Generation War as the first German program highlight on that channel for years. Dutch Filmworks acquired HV rights for the Netherlands. Beta Film expects additional significant interest from international buyers in Cannes and is highlighting the extraordinary production at its traditional Beta Brunch at MIP TV on Tuesday, April 9th.
Praised as a “turning point in German television” (Der Spiegel), the mini-series scored record ratings on Germany’s ZDF with 7.2 million, growing to 8.5 million viewers (market share over 24 %) and up to a 17%+ market share in the target group 14-49 years, triggering an unprecedented debate about personal guilt in WWII. Generation War depicting the fate of the young men and women who fought in Hitler’s devastating war, losing their youth and innocence if not their lives, is a grand and epic story of friendship, betrayal, faith, deception and responsibility.
Der Spiegel sees “a new milestone of German remembrance culture beyond the generations”, Süddeutsche Zeitung named Generation War “epochal”, weekly Die Zeit praised it as “the most impressive project in recent TV history”. The Economist stated: “…rarely has such a programme triggered as much debate and interest”, Irish Times underlined that “television doesn’t get any stronger”. UK’s Daily Telegraph wrote: “The series has been hailed by critics as a „turning point“ in German television for examining the crimes of the Third Reich at an individual level".
Directed by Philipp Kadelbach (“Hindenburg”), the production stars Volker Bruch (“The Reader”), Tom Schilling (“Oh Boy”), Katharina Schüttler (“Carlos”), Miriam Stein (“Goethe”) and Ludwig Trepte (“You can never be sure”). Generation War is a co-production of teamWorx and ZDF in co-operation with Beta Film and ZDF Enterprises, supported by Film und Medienstiftung NRW, FFF Bayern, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Medienboard, Nordmedia and FFHSH.
|
