Soccer Drama The Window Assembles Creative Team

ZDF Enterprises and Japan’s Fuji TV have unveiled the key creative team and the start of shooting for their suspenseful drama series The Window.

The Window has been developed and produced by Boogie Entertainment and is co-produced by Fuji TV, ZDF Enterprises and Velvet Films in Belgium. ZDF Enterprises and Fuji TV will also internationally distribute the series.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in the U.K. next week, with locations in Belgium and Malta to follow.

The series creator and writer James Payne (The Musketeers, Hooten & the Lady, Mr. Selfridge) is now joined by writers Chris Gill (The Hive, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks) and Mark Greig (Bulletproof, Ransom, No Offence). Director and actor Adrian Shergold (Mad Dogs, The Last Hangman, Holding On) will be the series director, with Claudia Garde (Tatort, Milberg, Stubbe) and Pieter van Hees (Waste Land, Chausée d’amour, Versailles) acting as directors.

Mel Raido (Dark Encounter, Just Getting Started, The Disappointments Room) plays Romulus, Tommy Bastow (Agatha Raisin, The Crossing, Man in an Orange Shirt) will take on Keiran’s part and Samuel Jordan  (Henry Jekyll, Arthur, Romeo and Juliet) will play the part of Jordan. Lynn Van Royen (24 Hours: Two Sides of Crime, Tabula Rasa, The Team) stars as Esther, Jodie Tyack (Agatha Raisin, The Feed, Inspector Barnaby) as Molly and Carole Weyers (Grey’s Anatomy, Navy CIS, Modern Family) as Kirsten.

The series begins at the end of the English soccer season. The champions have been crowned, relegated teams drop down a division, and the transfer window opens.

Fred Burcksen, president and CEO of ZDF Enterprises, said: “The Window is an original and innovative view on sports TV series,  that takes an inside look at the elite world of professional football and the dealings behind the scenes of this multi-billion-euros business. The series goes behind the scene and highlights both the strengths of football as a worldwide sport and its weaknesses. We are extremely proud and honored to be partnering with Fuji TV on this first ever European-Japanese scripted co-production.”

Toru Ora, senior executive managing director of Fuji Television Network, added:  “A research company reported here last year that more than 10,000 drama series are released worldwide every single year. The fundamental question for us is how can we create new stories that will be noticed, connect with our audience, move them emotionally and give them joy among these 10,000 works. Our solution is the co-production of a large-scale drama series with ZDF Enterprises from Germany. We thought up the idea here in Cannes three years ago, and we will start to film next week in U.K. We are extremely proud of the fresh new challenges ahead.”