Amazon Secures Exclusive Rights to ‘Deutschland83’ Season 2 in Germany
“Deutschland86,” the sequel to hit Cold War thriller series “Deutschland83,” will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in Germany in 2018.
German free-to-air broadcaster RTL Television, which commissioned “Deutschland83” in 2014 and aired the show in autumn 2015, has secured a first-look option for the linear TV rights to “Deutschland86,” and expects to air the sequel in 2018/2019 after Amazon’s first window. Amazon Prime has made all episodes of “Deutschland83” available for streaming for subscribers in Germany and Austria.
FremantleMedia Intl., the global sales arm of FremantleMedia, continues to sell the series to broadcasters and streaming services around the world. Other buyers include SundanceTV (U.S.), which will co-produce, Hulu (U.S.), Channel 4 and Walter Presents (U.K.), Sundance Channel (Canada), Crave (Canada), Super Ecran (French-speaking Canada), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland), NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), RUV (Iceland), CMore (Scandinavia), RTE (Eire), Canal Plus (France), Movistar+ (Spain), Sky Italia (Italy), Paramount (Italy), OTE (Greece), Telenet (Belgium), RTL Klub (Hungary), HRT (Croatia), Hotvision (Israel), and Sinema TV (Turkey), with more deals to be announced.
FremantleMedia Intl. sold “Deutschland83” to 38 broadcasters and subscription VOD platforms globally, which took the series to over 110 territories worldwide. It was the first ever German-language drama to have aired on a major U.S. cable channel (SundanceTV) and became the U.K.’s highest-ever rated foreign-language drama launch when it debuted on Channel 4.
“Deutschland86,” which was created by head writer Anna Winger and Joerg Winger, and executive produced by Winger, Sebastian Werninger and Ulrike Leibfried for FremantleMedia’s UFA Fiction, will start to shoot next year.
“‘Deutschland86’ returns three years after ‘Deutschland83,’ and picks up the story of East German agent Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) and his compatriots in the Stasi Foreign Intelligence in 1986,” according to a statement. “Martin has been banished to Africa until Aunt Lenora recruits him to fight for the last gasp of Communism abroad. Set against the backdrop of real events during the last ‘Summer of Anxiety,’ when terrorism raged across Western Europe, Martin’s dark mission takes him to Johannesburg, Tripoli, Paris, West Berlin and finally back to East Berlin, where he is forced to face new realities at home – and to make an impossible decision.”
“Deutschland83” was awarded many national and international awards, among them a Grimme Preis, a Goldene Kamera, a Peabody and a Satellite Award. For his role as Martin Rauch, Jonas Nay won a Golden Nymph award at the Festival de Télévision in Monte Carlo, and the German Television Award. “Deutschland83” is also nominated for the 2016 International Emmy Awards in the Drama Series category.
Nico Hofmann, co-CEO of UFA, said: “With this latest collaboration between Amazon, RTL Television, FremantleMedia Intl. and UFA, a long-awaited wish comes true. This latest deal is a milestone in co-production history. It will be resetting standards for the upcoming years.”
Jens Richter, CEO of FremantleMedia Intl., said: “’Deutschland83’ achieved tremendous ratings worldwide and together with our fantastic group of partners we were able to help turn the series into the most-successful German drama of our time. The storyline for season two looks to be as thrilling as the first and we’re looking forward to working with Amazon and our distribution partners to accomplish further success.”
Christoph Schneider, managing director of Amazon Prime Video Germany, said: “After the Amazon Original ‘You Are Wanted’ with Matthias Schweighoefer and Michael Bully Herbig’s ‘Bullyparade – Der Film,’ ‘Deutschland86’ is the latest German-made production that will be available exclusively on Prime Video. German series and movies are very important for our Prime members and we are happy to continue to build on our engagement with German production industry and bring great new shows to our customers.”
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