We announced it back in August, now the Season 2 renewal of Deutschland 83 (Deutschland 86) is finally ‘official’:
DEUTSCHLAND86: UFA FICTION AND AMAZON PARTNER ON A GROUND-BREAKING DEAL TO CONTINUE THE AWARD-WINNING GERMAN DRAMA SERIES
14 October 2016Amazon and UFA Fiction today announced that the sequel to the nationally and internationally award-winning series Deutschland83 will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in Germany in 2018. In addition, all episodes of Deutschland83 are now available for streaming for Prime members in Germany and Austria.
Created by Anna Winger (Head Writer) and Jörg Winger, and executive produced by Jörg Winger, Sebastian Werninger, and Ulrike Leibfried, the shooting of the Deutschland86 will commence in 2017.
Under the terms of the agreement, RTL Television, which commissioned Deutschland83 in 2014 and aired the first season in autumn 2015, has secured a first-look option for the linear TV rights and expects to air the sequel on German free-to-air television in 2018/2019 after Amazon’s first window.
FremantleMedia International, the global distribution arm of FremantleMedia, will continue to sell the high-end drama series to broadcasters and streaming services around the world. Season two of the German thriller, will debut in the US on SundanceTV, who will continue as co-production partners in the US, followed by Hulu (US); Channel 4 and Walter Presents (UK), 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+ (France), Movistar+ (Spain), Sky Italia (Italy), Paramount (Italy), OTE (Greece), Telenet (Belgium), RTL Klub (Hungary), HRT (Croatia), Hotvision (Israel), Sinema TV (Turkey), with more deals to be announced.
FremantleMedia International sold the first season, Deutschland83, to 38 broadcasters and SVOD platforms globally, which took the series to over 110 territories worldwide. The series was the first ever German-language drama to have aired on a major US cable channel (SundanceTV) and became the UK’s highest ever rated foreign-language drama launch when it debuted on Channel 4.
Nico Hofmann, Co-CEO of UFA, says: “With this latest collaboration between Amazon, RTL Television, FremantleMedia International and UFA, a long-awaited wish comes true. This latest deal is a milestone in coproduction history. It will be resetting standards for the upcoming years.”
Jens Richter, CEO of FremantleMedia International, says: “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.”
Dr. Christoph Schneider, Managing Director of Amazon Prime Video Germany, says: “After the Amazon Original You Are Wanted with Matthias Schweighöfer 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.”
Frank Hoffmann, Managing Director Programming at RTL Television, says: “Practically no other German drama series has attracted so much attention or generated so much buzz over the past few years, especially on the international markets. As the rights holder and broadcaster of Deutschland83, it has been our clear goal to ensure that this exceptional UFA Fiction and FremantleMedia International series could continue – and this has now been achieved with a new partner. It goes without saying that we are looking forward to broadcast Deutschland86 free-to-air on RTL Television.”
The ground-breaking agreement with Amazon Prime also demonstrates the growing success of FremantleMedia’s push into high-end scripted content. In August, Amazon and FremantleMedia International announced that the fantasy drama American Gods will launch exclusively for Prime members in Germany, Austria, UK and Japan in 2017. In September, much acclaimed
The Young Pope – produced by FremantleMedia’s Wildside for Sky, HBO and Canal Plus – celebrated its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. At this year’s MIPCOM, the world’s entertainment content market, UFA Fiction will show the two high end drama-series The Same Sky (Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel; Screenwriter: Paula Milne), which joins the line-up of world premiere TV Screenings, and Charité (Director: Sönke Wortmann) which deals with the history of the world famous Berlin hospital.Created by Anna Winger and Jörg Winger, Deutschland86 returns three years later and picks up the story of East German Agent Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) and his compatriots in the Stasi Foreign Intelligence in 1986. 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 International Emmy Awards 2016 in the category “Drama Series”. Deutschland86 is a production of UFA Fiction in cooperation with Amazon, FremantleMedia International and UFA Distribution. (FM)
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SUNDANCE TV PARTNERS WITH FREMANTLEMEDIA INTERNATIONAL AND UFA FICTION TO PICK UP SECOND SEASON OF PEABODY AWARD-WINNING SERIES “DEUTSCHLAND83”
Thriller to return as “Deutschland86” and explore a critical time period in German history
NEW YORK – October 14, 2016 – SundanceTV and FremantleMedia International announced today that the international co-production “Deutschland83” has been picked up for a second season and will see the network co-produce the series with UFA Fiction. The critically acclaimed spy thriller, created by Anna Winger and Joerg Winger, explored the tense atmosphere between East and West Germany in 1983 in its first season.
“Deutschland86” returns three years later and picks up the story of East German Agent Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) and his compatriots in the Stasi Foreign Intelligence in 1986. Martin has been banished to Africa until Aunt Lenora recruits him to fight for the last gasp of Communism in the Global Cold War. 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.
Deutschland86 is a production of UFA Fiction in cooperation with Amazon, FremantleMedia International and UFA Distribution. Head Writer is Anna Winger. Producers are Jörg Winger, Sebastian Werninger, and Ulrike Leibfried. Shooting of the new episodes will start next year and the series will bow on SundanceTV in 2018.
Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV, said, “‘Deutschland83’ is a key example of the terrific, entertaining content SundanceTV has collaborated on with creative voices from around the world. Anna and Joerg Winger did an incredible job taking well-known historical events and framing them with a unique lens in the first season. We know that they will offer a fresh perspective to the events in Germany in 1986 and are thrilled to join them on their journey back in time.”
Lisa Honig, SEVP, television & digital distribution, North America for FremantleMedia International said, “The response for ‘Deutschland83’ from the US viewers was incredible and we’re thrilled to be partnering with SundanceTV once again to bring the second season of the German drama to the fans. We, as well as the rest of the world, cannot wait to see what’s ahead for our hero Martin Rauch.”
SundanceTV launched in summer 2015. The German-language series went on to win many national and international awards, including a prestigious Peabody Award. Further, the series was lauded as “an ingenious, counterintuitive look at the Cold War” by The New York Times, as well as “a spy thriller you won’t be able to look away from” by Buzzfeed.
Sonya Healy says
February 13, 2017 at 10:44Congratulations, excellent show.