Exclusive: Walter Presents has stocked up on premium international drama and bought a trio of titles from Zdf Studios. The on-demand service is operated by Global Series Network and its lineup is curated by Walter Iuzzolino. It majors in the best of foreign-language drama from around the world and Iuzzolino has duly snapped up The Shadow, Suplex and more Sløborn.
The Shadow follows a female journalist embarking on a new life in Vienna. Once there, she meets a beggar who tells her she is going to kill a man, setting a dark prophecy in motion. The six-parter was for German streamer ZDFneo and scooped the Audience Choice Award at the German Seriencamp festival in 2023. It will be on Walter Presents services in the U.S. and the UK.
Danish series Suplex will also be on the U.S. service. The show is a whodunnit following events after a competitor is murdered at a wrestling tournament.
The Shadow follows a female journalist embarking on a new life in Vienna. Once there, she meets a beggar who tells her she is going to kill a man, setting a dark prophecy in motion. The six-parter was for German streamer ZDFneo and scooped the Audience Choice Award at the German Seriencamp festival in 2023. It will be on Walter Presents services in the U.S. and the UK.
Danish series Suplex will also be on the U.S. service. The show is a whodunnit following events after a competitor is murdered at a wrestling tournament.
- 9/12/2024
- by Stewart Clarke
- Deadline Film + TV
German broadcasters Zdf and ZDFneo are partnering with Berlin-based Pyjama Pictures to develop a high-end series about notorious scam artist Ruja Ignatova, also known as the Cryptoqueen and the most wanted woman on the planet.
Tentatively titled “Take the Money and Run,” the six-part series will tell the story of Ignatova, who shot to fame in 2014 with the launch of OneCoin, which she described as a cryptocurrency for the masses that promised enormous profits.
The Bulgarian-German Ignatova hyped the cryptocurrency at huge rallies and attracted millions buyers around the globe who invested billions of euros in OneCoin, believing claims that it would become the world’s biggest digital currency. Flush with cash, Ignatova threw lavish champagne parties and acquired luxury properties around the world. It was all a giant fraud, however.
Ignatova suddenly disappeared without a trace in 2017 after defrauding investors of an estimated $15 billion in what was described as...
Tentatively titled “Take the Money and Run,” the six-part series will tell the story of Ignatova, who shot to fame in 2014 with the launch of OneCoin, which she described as a cryptocurrency for the masses that promised enormous profits.
The Bulgarian-German Ignatova hyped the cryptocurrency at huge rallies and attracted millions buyers around the globe who invested billions of euros in OneCoin, believing claims that it would become the world’s biggest digital currency. Flush with cash, Ignatova threw lavish champagne parties and acquired luxury properties around the world. It was all a giant fraud, however.
Ignatova suddenly disappeared without a trace in 2017 after defrauding investors of an estimated $15 billion in what was described as...
- 4/25/2023
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
If you’re already experiencing The Last of Us withdrawals after the finale, let Screambox fill the post-apocalyptic void in your life with The Island.
Known internationally as Sløborn, the series combines elements of disaster thriller, coming-of-age drama, dystopian sci-fi, and survival horror. The German-Danish co-production was created by filmmaker Christian Alvart, who directed the genre films Pandorum, Case 39, and Antibodies before creating Netflix’s Dogs of Berlin.
It’s never been easy to be a teenager, but it’s particularly difficult for Gen Z, who are doomed to reckon with fears of the future — or lack thereof. As 15-year-old Evelin Kern (Emily Kusche) puts it in The Island‘s opening voice over, “Ever since I can remember, the world has been ending. Species extinction, deforestation, economic crises, environmental pollution, terrorism, and climate change. Happy days. Somewhere there is always the next crisis, the next war, and mankind has...
Known internationally as Sløborn, the series combines elements of disaster thriller, coming-of-age drama, dystopian sci-fi, and survival horror. The German-Danish co-production was created by filmmaker Christian Alvart, who directed the genre films Pandorum, Case 39, and Antibodies before creating Netflix’s Dogs of Berlin.
It’s never been easy to be a teenager, but it’s particularly difficult for Gen Z, who are doomed to reckon with fears of the future — or lack thereof. As 15-year-old Evelin Kern (Emily Kusche) puts it in The Island‘s opening voice over, “Ever since I can remember, the world has been ending. Species extinction, deforestation, economic crises, environmental pollution, terrorism, and climate change. Happy days. Somewhere there is always the next crisis, the next war, and mankind has...
- 3/13/2023
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
Screambox is the exclusive home to “The Island” (“Sløborn”), the critically-acclaimed pandemic-fueled series from celebrated filmmaker Christian Alvart, director behind horror favs Antibodies and Pandorum, not to mention Case 39 and Netflix’s “Dogs of Berlin”.
Today, we’ve released Season 2 of the coming-of-age pandemic-set thriller and have all 14 episodes now streaming on Screambox!
“Blurring the line between pandemic fantasy and reality, the series centers around a remote island in the North Sea that falls victim to a merciless and mysterious virus. As authorities rush to contain the disease, a fever of madness sweeps across the island.”
“‘The Island’ [is] a coming-of-age-drama and post-apocalyptic disaster thriller merge into a modern epic,” explains Zdf Enterprises’ Robert Franke, “In a radical, uncompromising manner, the series raises the question of what happens to us modern people when the thin varnish of our civilization collapses. It has all the hallmarks of a top-quality thriller.”
March...
Today, we’ve released Season 2 of the coming-of-age pandemic-set thriller and have all 14 episodes now streaming on Screambox!
“Blurring the line between pandemic fantasy and reality, the series centers around a remote island in the North Sea that falls victim to a merciless and mysterious virus. As authorities rush to contain the disease, a fever of madness sweeps across the island.”
“‘The Island’ [is] a coming-of-age-drama and post-apocalyptic disaster thriller merge into a modern epic,” explains Zdf Enterprises’ Robert Franke, “In a radical, uncompromising manner, the series raises the question of what happens to us modern people when the thin varnish of our civilization collapses. It has all the hallmarks of a top-quality thriller.”
March...
- 3/7/2023
- by Brad Miska
- bloody-disgusting.com
Munich-based sales agency Beta Cinema has picked up international thriller “Operation Napoleon,” and will kick off presales at the Cannes Film Market.
Shooting wrapped recently at the Langjökull glacier in Iceland, and the production has now moved to Mmc Studios in Cologne, Germany.
The Icelandic-German co-production is based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Iceland’s Arnaldur Indriðason, and features a stellar cast, led by Icelandic newcomer Vivian Ólafsdóttir (“It Hatched”), Jack Fox and Scottish actor Iain Glen, best known for his role as Dr. Alexander Isaacs in the “Resident Evil” film series and as Ser Jorah Mormont in “Game of Thrones.”
The sweeping story takes the viewer from modern Iceland to America and Nazi Germany at the end of World War II. It centers on young Icelandic lawyer Kristin, who gets drawn into the vortex of an international conspiracy when she receives grainy footage of an old airplane wreck,...
Shooting wrapped recently at the Langjökull glacier in Iceland, and the production has now moved to Mmc Studios in Cologne, Germany.
The Icelandic-German co-production is based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Iceland’s Arnaldur Indriðason, and features a stellar cast, led by Icelandic newcomer Vivian Ólafsdóttir (“It Hatched”), Jack Fox and Scottish actor Iain Glen, best known for his role as Dr. Alexander Isaacs in the “Resident Evil” film series and as Ser Jorah Mormont in “Game of Thrones.”
The sweeping story takes the viewer from modern Iceland to America and Nazi Germany at the end of World War II. It centers on young Icelandic lawyer Kristin, who gets drawn into the vortex of an international conspiracy when she receives grainy footage of an old airplane wreck,...
- 4/28/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Zdf Enterprises has struck further deals for the first season of post-apocalyptic disaster thriller “Sløborn,” including sales in the U.K., Russia and Japan.
The eight-part series is produced by Christian Alvart’s Berlin-based Syrreal Entertainment in co-production with Zdf, Tobis, Nordisk Film and Zdf Enterprises. Alvart, who also penned and helmed the Netflix series “Dogs of Berlin,” co-wrote and directed “Sløborn” along with Adolfo J. Kolmerer.
Season 1 of the ZDFneo original series deals with the outbreak of a fatal virus on the North Sea island of Sløborn and the inhabitants’ fight to survive the global catastrophe. Alvart was in production with “Sløborn” well before the Covid-19 pandemic but the storyline was eerily prescient: A community is slowly devastated when a deadly virus begins killing residents while being largely ignored by most of the population until it’s too late.
In Season 2, which premieres on ZDFneo on Feb. 21 and will soon be available for distribution,...
The eight-part series is produced by Christian Alvart’s Berlin-based Syrreal Entertainment in co-production with Zdf, Tobis, Nordisk Film and Zdf Enterprises. Alvart, who also penned and helmed the Netflix series “Dogs of Berlin,” co-wrote and directed “Sløborn” along with Adolfo J. Kolmerer.
Season 1 of the ZDFneo original series deals with the outbreak of a fatal virus on the North Sea island of Sløborn and the inhabitants’ fight to survive the global catastrophe. Alvart was in production with “Sløborn” well before the Covid-19 pandemic but the storyline was eerily prescient: A community is slowly devastated when a deadly virus begins killing residents while being largely ignored by most of the population until it’s too late.
In Season 2, which premieres on ZDFneo on Feb. 21 and will soon be available for distribution,...
- 2/16/2022
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Zdf Enterprises has boarded the second season of the coming-of-age, pandemic thriller “Sløborn” as co-producer and global distributor.
Season 1 of the ZDFneo original series dealt with the spread of a deadly virus across the world that ravaged the island of Sløborn, and the inhabitants’ fight to survive the catastrophe. In Season 2, audiences will experience the world after its collapse.
Shooting for the new season will take place in the spring of this year. Wotan Wilke Möhring, Emily Kusche, Alexander Scheer, Aaron Hilmer, Adrian Grünewald and Lea van Acken will once again star. Christian Alvart and Adolfo J. Kolmerer direct from a screenplay by Arend Remmers and Alvart.
In Season 2, the island has been evacuated after many residents died of the fatal pigeon flu. But a small group of people refused to be evacuated and hid on the island, for fear of being exposed to an even greater risk of infection on the mainland.
Season 1 of the ZDFneo original series dealt with the spread of a deadly virus across the world that ravaged the island of Sløborn, and the inhabitants’ fight to survive the catastrophe. In Season 2, audiences will experience the world after its collapse.
Shooting for the new season will take place in the spring of this year. Wotan Wilke Möhring, Emily Kusche, Alexander Scheer, Aaron Hilmer, Adrian Grünewald and Lea van Acken will once again star. Christian Alvart and Adolfo J. Kolmerer direct from a screenplay by Arend Remmers and Alvart.
In Season 2, the island has been evacuated after many residents died of the fatal pigeon flu. But a small group of people refused to be evacuated and hid on the island, for fear of being exposed to an even greater risk of infection on the mainland.
- 4/9/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
David Hasselhoff is heading to Germany to star in a comedy spy series produced by Christian Alvart’s Berlin-based Syrreal Entertainment in what will be the first project from the company’s new international first-look deal with CBS Studios.
A straight-to-series order for Mediengruppe Rtl’s SVOD platform TVNow, “Ze Network” sees Hasselhoff playing himself as he travels to Germany to headline a stage production in what he believes is a major theater in East Berlin, only to discover it’s actually a small venue located “east of Berlin” — in the town of Görlitz. Once there, the Hoff is plunged into the center of an international conspiracy of former Cold War assassins, while around him the fabric of reality seems to break down.
German actor Henry Hübchen likewise plays himself, co-starring with Hasselhoff in the play. This version of Hübchen, however, has a more shadowy East German past than his...
A straight-to-series order for Mediengruppe Rtl’s SVOD platform TVNow, “Ze Network” sees Hasselhoff playing himself as he travels to Germany to headline a stage production in what he believes is a major theater in East Berlin, only to discover it’s actually a small venue located “east of Berlin” — in the town of Görlitz. Once there, the Hoff is plunged into the center of an international conspiracy of former Cold War assassins, while around him the fabric of reality seems to break down.
German actor Henry Hübchen likewise plays himself, co-starring with Hasselhoff in the play. This version of Hübchen, however, has a more shadowy East German past than his...
- 3/22/2021
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Martin Scorsese-fronted Documentary
Abacus Media Rights will distribute documentary The Oratorio, hosted by multiple Academy Award-winner Martin Scorsese. The 66-minute TV film about the immigrant experience will tell the story of a long-forgotten event that helped shape the cultural landscape of New York. In 1826, a single performance at St Patrick’s Old Cathedral introduced Italian opera to New York City. Painstaking research has unearthed stories of the personalities involved including Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, debt-ridden and selling groceries; Maria Malibran, a young singer considered opera’s first diva and Pierre Toussaint, a freed slave and chief benefactor in building the church. The film is directed and produced by Mary Anne Rothberg and Jonathan Mann, co-founders of production company Provenance Productions (Do Not Duplicate) and director Alex Bayer. The feature also includes contributions from church parishioner and comedian Jim Gaffigan and members of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari...
Abacus Media Rights will distribute documentary The Oratorio, hosted by multiple Academy Award-winner Martin Scorsese. The 66-minute TV film about the immigrant experience will tell the story of a long-forgotten event that helped shape the cultural landscape of New York. In 1826, a single performance at St Patrick’s Old Cathedral introduced Italian opera to New York City. Painstaking research has unearthed stories of the personalities involved including Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, debt-ridden and selling groceries; Maria Malibran, a young singer considered opera’s first diva and Pierre Toussaint, a freed slave and chief benefactor in building the church. The film is directed and produced by Mary Anne Rothberg and Jonathan Mann, co-founders of production company Provenance Productions (Do Not Duplicate) and director Alex Bayer. The feature also includes contributions from church parishioner and comedian Jim Gaffigan and members of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari...
- 1/21/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman, Jake Kanter and Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Stan is set to further expand its international drama slate, thanks to a new partnership with UK VOD service Walter Presents announced today.
The exclusive long-term deal means dramas that have been hand-picked from around the world by the service’s curator and co-founder, Walter Iuzzolino, will run first on Stan.
Among the eight new shows launching in January are Peacemaker, Devil’s Throat, First Responders, Hide and Seek, Sløborn and Rocco Schiavone: Ice Cold Murders.
They will be followed by The Pleasure Principle, Hassle, Perfect Places, and Angel of Death in February.
It comes after Stan inked a multi-year, exclusive content partnership with NBCUniversal Global Distribution in August to become the local home for productions from Sky Studios, NBCUniversal International Studios, as well as Peacock Originals produced by Universal Studio Group and Dreamworks Animation TV.
Stan’s chief content officer Nick Forward says the deal with Walter Presents is...
The exclusive long-term deal means dramas that have been hand-picked from around the world by the service’s curator and co-founder, Walter Iuzzolino, will run first on Stan.
Among the eight new shows launching in January are Peacemaker, Devil’s Throat, First Responders, Hide and Seek, Sløborn and Rocco Schiavone: Ice Cold Murders.
They will be followed by The Pleasure Principle, Hassle, Perfect Places, and Angel of Death in February.
It comes after Stan inked a multi-year, exclusive content partnership with NBCUniversal Global Distribution in August to become the local home for productions from Sky Studios, NBCUniversal International Studios, as well as Peacock Originals produced by Universal Studio Group and Dreamworks Animation TV.
Stan’s chief content officer Nick Forward says the deal with Walter Presents is...
- 1/20/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
With depictions of pandemic catastrophes, war, failing empires, the divide between rich and poor, shooting rampages and massive power outages, Germany’s newest TV shows appear to reflect the current apocalyptic zeitgeist.
German broadcasters and streaming services alike are going heavy on suspense, crime, psychological thrillers, action and adventure, often colored by themes of societal disruption and armed conflict.
Showrunner Christian Alvart (“Dogs of Berlin”) was in production with Zdf Enterprise’s new series “Sløborn” well before the Covid-19 pandemic but the storyline was eerily prescient: A community on the North Sea island of Sløborn is slowly devastated when a deadly virus begins killing residents while being largely ignored by most of the population until it’s too late. Alvart says he wanted to make a series about a crisis that occurs because people are too occupied with their daily lives to take the situation seriously.
In Zdf’s “Shadowplay,...
German broadcasters and streaming services alike are going heavy on suspense, crime, psychological thrillers, action and adventure, often colored by themes of societal disruption and armed conflict.
Showrunner Christian Alvart (“Dogs of Berlin”) was in production with Zdf Enterprise’s new series “Sløborn” well before the Covid-19 pandemic but the storyline was eerily prescient: A community on the North Sea island of Sløborn is slowly devastated when a deadly virus begins killing residents while being largely ignored by most of the population until it’s too late. Alvart says he wanted to make a series about a crisis that occurs because people are too occupied with their daily lives to take the situation seriously.
In Zdf’s “Shadowplay,...
- 10/13/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
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