‘Das Boot’: Sonar Acquires Rights To Event Series; Boards As Co-Producer
Sonar Entertainment has come on board eight-episode event series Das Boot, joining Germany’s Bavaria Fernsehproduktion and Sky Deutschland as co-producer and distributor. The series is set to begin production in 2017 for premiere worldwide in 2018.
Sonar holds all global distribution rights to the series, with the exception of Sky’s five European territories, which include Germany, Austria, UK, Ireland and Italy.
“This is Sonar’s first non-English speaking co-production and it’s a reflection of the global marketplace – how programming is being developed and produced simultaneously in the US and Europe for both territories,” Sonar noted in a statement.
The new production is set immediately after the events of Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 Oscar-nominated classic anti-war film, one of the most successful German films of all time. While the original film exclusively followed the claustrophobic world inside a World War II German U-boat, the new series expands to focus not just on the German perspective but also on the experiences of the French Resistance and Allied forces. Like the original film, the series is based on the best-seller of the same name by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim.
The drama is being adapted by Tony Saint and Johannes W. Betz. The project is executive produced by Bavaria Fernsehproduktion’s Oliver Vogel and Moritz Polter and Sonar’s Jenna Santoianni, together with Sky’s Marcus Ammon and Frank Jastfelder.
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