Amazon Prime Video Germany Kicks On With ‘All Or Nothing’ World Cup Doc Series; Discovery+ & Paramount+ Joining Channels Service

Jesse Whittock
·4 min read
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Amazon has unveiled its 2022-23 German originals slate as it up investment in the country, with new Prime Video comedy shows and the latest All or Nothing soccer doc among the highlights. At the same time, Prime Video Channels will soon offer Discovery+ and Paramount+ as add-ons.

At a Prime Video Presents Germany showcase event today in Munich, Prime Video Country Director Kaspar Pflüger said the company would “continue to invest massively in the German-speaking region,” as local content chief Philip Pratt revealed looks at fantasy series The Gryphon, 1980s-set drama series Luden and the adaptation of Sebastian Fitzek’s The Therapy, and announced several new shows, including another All or Nothing series in the soccer-mad country.

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The All or Nothing docu-series will follow the German national football team’s journey to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, showing what goes on in front of and behind the scenes at the tournament. Amazon Studios is producing in association with UFA Documentary, with Christian Twente the director and Marc Lepetit the producer. Prime Video has already run All or Nothing docs on leading clubs Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

Also on the slate is a “mysterious new” comedy from LOL: Last One Laughing Germany ensemble star Joko Winterscheidt, in which he is writing and starring. “I will be on Prime Video from the beginning of next year. It will be different, it will be crazy, even very crazy. It might even leave you disturbed. Just watch it,” he said.

There will also be another season of LOL, which is Prime Video Germany’s most popular show. It will return in Spring next year, as Pratt seeks to establish April as the show’s annual release date. At the event, LOL host Michael Bully Herbig introduced new celebrity participants for the fourth season, in which comedians attempt to make each other laugh while sitting in a rigged room for several hours. Constantin Entertainment is producing, with Otto Steiner the producer and Anna Franz the executive producer.

Also new is HILLarious, an original eight-part sketch comedy show from actress and comedian Martina Hill. Featuring celebrity guests for special sketches, it comes from Redseven Entertainment in collaboration with Hillux Film- und Fernsehproduktion for Prime Video. There’s also four-part doc Hunted (working title), which looks at the career, successes, and crashes of former German cyclist Jan Ullrich. Constantin Dokumentation is attached and Sebastian Dehnhardt is directing.

Til Schweiger’s film Lieber Kurt will make its streaming premiere on Prime Video in Spring next year, a few months after its theatrical release.

As Deadline recently revealed, Prime Video is also lining up Silver (working title), a feature based on the best-selling novel series of the same name by Kerstin Gier with a cast including Jana McKinnon, Riva Krymalowski, Rhys Mannion, Chaneil Kular and Efeosa Afolabi among others.

“Our ambition for our Amazon Originals from Germany is growing year-on-year,” said Pratt, Head of German Originals at Amazon Studios.

“We’re releasing formats with some of the best creatives in the German-speaking world, including Joko Winterscheidt, Martina Hill, Teddy Teclebrhan, and many more. And we bring viewers closer to their idols than ever before: Rap star Apache let us accompany him for the first time for a very personal documentary, Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich talks exclusively about the highs and lows of his career, and we accompany the national football team behind the scenes of the 2022 World Cup tournament.”

Release dates & Prime Video Channels expansion

Pratt revealed six-part W&B Television and DogHaus Film’s drama The Gryphon (Die Greif), based on Wolfgang Hohlbein’s fantasy novel, will launch mid-2023, while Neuesuper’s Reeperbahn gangster series Luden debuts in spring. Ziegler Film’s psychological drama The Therapy debuts in the fall next next year, while Prime Video Germany’s first true-crime series German Crime Story: Tied Up, from Neue Bioskop Television, goes out early next year.

On September 23 this month, feature doc Apache stays Apache, about rapper Volkan Yaman aka Apache 207, will launch, while the second season of Die Discounter debuts on November 11. Love story feature Sacher Cake, comedy series Love Addicts and seasonal series Peaceful Christmas all got release dates this year, and the first images from Save Me, the series based on Mona Kasten’s novel, were unveiled.

Elsewhere at the event, Pflüger revealed Discovery+ would be “imminently” available as an add-on subscription for Prime members, with Paramount+ also joining the platform at the end of the year.

“We will continue to invest massively in the German-speaking region to offer Prime Video viewers the widest choice and variety of content,” said Pflüger. “Our goal is to offer Prime Video viewers the greatest possible selection of content with the greatest possible flexibility — including content available free with ads on Amazon Freevee, exclusive Amazon Originals, licensed formats, live sports, live-streamed public TV channels, add-on Prime Video Channels for even more choice and the latest cinema highlights and many more films and TV series to buy and rent.”

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