Sky Deutschland Unveils Slate, Plans for 60 Originals

COMMISSIONS

Sky Deutschland has revealed plans for three new original series, which are part of a wider slate of 60 German and international series that will air in 2022.

“Autobahn,” a 10-part series, will follow a pair of police officer brothers as they keep their cool while chasing suspects at high speed. Shot across Bavaria, the series is from producer Action Concept in association with Sky Studios. The lead writers are Sven Frauenhoff and Andreas Brune. The producers are Heiko Schmidt, Andreas Perzl and Frank Jastfelder.

Set in the year 2036, “Tender Hearts” turns on Mila who orders a humanoid love robot from an advanced tech firm. The eight part series is produced by Odeon Film in association with Sky Studios with Eva Lia Reinegger set to write, with Pola Beck as director. Executive producers are Katja Herzog, Andreas Perzl and Frank Jastfelder.

“Chameleon,” an eight part series, is set in the murky and mysterious world of corporate lobbying and follows Max ‘The Chameleon,’ a calculated and smooth operator who begins to question himself after he meets Vallery, a new, mysterious lobbyist, who both attracts and repels him at the same time. Produced by Isarstraßen Film in association with Sky Studios, the series is written by Christian Jeltsch.

In addition to these new originals, previously announced titles including “The Ibiza Affair” and “The Wasp” are both set to air this year, with season 2 of “Der Pass,” “Paradiso,” season 3 of “Das Boot”, “Souls” and the fourth season of global hit “Babylon Berlin” all set to air in 2022.

Meanwhile, the five-year content partnership, originally launched in 2020, which saw wildlife and nature brand Love Nature’s original series and documentaries land on Sky Nature exclusively in the U.K., has now been expanded into into Germany and Italy. Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland customers will be able to access Sky Nature, including 670 hours of Love Nature’s originals content by 2025.

Elsewhere, Discovery has commissioned two-part film “The Men Who Sold the World Cup (2×60),” from acclaimed directors Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme (“Get Me Roger Stone,” “The Swamp”), the story of how soccer’s biggest competition, the FIFA World Cup was sold to the highest bidders, the Arab state Qatar.

The documentary reveals the stranger-than-fiction truth behind how the world’s biggest sporting event was sold by some of international soccer’s most senior officials and how they were eventually evicted from their seats of power and luxury lifestyles.

Made in partnership with producers Story Films and Calliope Pictures, “The Men Who Sold the World Cup” will premiere on Discovery Plus in the U.S. and U.K. in October.

SERIES

LADbible Australia, the Antipodean subsidiary of digital publisher LADbible Group, has produced a limited documentary series, “Unheard,” for Amazon Prime Video. The six-part series explores the topic of racial discrimination in Australia, from Indigenous deaths in police custody to COVID-motivated attacks on Asian people. It will launch on the streamer in Australia, U.S., U.K., Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand on Oct. 29. – K.J. Yossman

CASTING

Writer-director Molly Vandermeer‘s film “Twelve” will deal with eating disorders which rose during the pandemic. The cast includes Duncan James (“Hollyoaks”), Leslie Ash (“Casualty”), Ali Bastian (“Doctors”) and Parvinder Shergill (“Daddy Blues”), an actor and U.K. National Health Service doctor, who will also produce.

Through the women-majority film, the filmmakers hope to shed light on the NHS services as as well as open more opportunities to women across different ethnic communities in film. The film will be produced by Pinder Productions and  Molly Vandermeer Productions.

FESTIVAL

Hungary’s National Film Institute is organizing Budapest’s largest international film event, Budapest Classics Film Marathon, which begins Sept. 21. The six-day festival offers more than 70 recently restored classics in themed sections at various venues around the capital.

The 2021 Marathon showcases newly restored classics and film rarities in five sections: Hommage, In Focus, Hungarians in Hollywood, Hungarian Eye and Open Archives.

Artists honored this year include iconic actor Mari Törőcsik, animation artist Marcell Jankovics, cinematographer János Tóth, French film director Bertrand Tavernier and revered Hungarian filmmaker Miklós Jancsó amongst others.