Netflix doubles German-language investment & orders 19 new projects

Kleo

Netflix has announced 19 new German-language projects from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while doubling its investment in content from the region to 500m Euros ($571M) between 2021 and 2023.

Unveiled as part of the streamer’s Content Remote Show 2022 today, the productions include nine series, five non-scripted titles and five films.

Among the new shows headed to Netflix are two projects from Constantin Film; the eight-part series Achtsam Morden (working title), based on the book of the same name by Karsten Dusse, and the six-parter Liebes Kind (working title), another novel adaptation, based on the book by Romy Hausmann.

King Of Stonks (previously titled Cable Cash) hails from Cologne-based production studio BTF and is a six-part financial thriller based on real events created by producers and showrunners Philipp Käßbohrer and Matthias Murmann.

Action-thriller series Kleo was created and written by HaRiBos, Hanno Hackfort, Richard Kropf and Bob Konrad. Produced by Zeitsprung Pictures, Michael Souvignier and Till Derenbach, it tells the story of a Stasi killer in Berlin during the German reunification.

Other upcoming shows include modern historical series The Empress (working title) by writer and showrunner Katharina Eysse, which has just wrapped, and mystery series 1899, from creators and showrunners Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, who were behind the hit series Dark and are producing with their newly founded production company Dark Ways.

The Empress

Films & factual

Films headed to the streamer include spaghetti western Blood and Gold (working title); How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) spin-off Buba (working title) and an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel Im Westen Nichts Neues.

Unscripted projects announced at the show include Queer Eye Germany, the first international spin-off of the US reality format, which is being produced by ITV Studios Germany, and true-crime series Soering (working title) from producer Arne Birkenstock.

Documentary thriller Wirecard will meanwhile follow Financial Times journalist Dan McCrum as he provides comprehensive insights into his six-year investigation into the German fintech company Wirecard.

Katja Hofem, who was appointed as Netflix VP of local language series, three months ago, commented: “When it comes to story development, our top priorities are strong and local stories with authentic characters, produced to the highest quality. We want to inspire our viewers through our content and also those who are not yet in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.”