Andreas Prochaska Signs on to Direct Das Boot Series

GRÜNWALD/UNTERFÖHRING: Andreas Prochaska has come on board to direct the international event series Das Boot, which is being developed for television by Bavaria Fernsehproduktion, Sky Germany and Sonar Entertainment.

The new eight-part series is a sequel set immediately after the events depicted in the best-selling novel by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim and Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 Oscar-nominated film. While the original Das Boot exclusively followed the claustrophobic and increasingly brutal world inside a World War II German U-boat, the new series focuses not only on the German perspective but also on the experiences of the French Resistance and Allied Forces, both on land and at sea. The series will also look at the rising resistance in the U-boat port of La Rochelle.

Production is slated to begin in mid-2017, with the first international TV showing planned for 2018 in the Sky territories Germany, Austria, Italy, the U.K. and Ireland.

Prochaska’s credits include the following films: Das finstere Tal (The Dark Valley) and Das Wunder von Kärnten (A Day for a Miracle), for which he was awarded an International Emmy. Prochaska has also been honored with the Deutsche Filmpreis (German Film Award) and the Romy and the Bayerische Fernsehpreis (the Bavarian Television Award).

Moritz Polter and Oliver Vogel, executive producers for Bavaria Fernsehproduktion, said, “Andreas Prochaska impresses with his visually breathtaking, authentic and at the same time modern narrative style. We are extraordinarily pleased to have a director in Andreas Prochaska who shares our vision of the sequel of Das Boot.”

Marcus Ammon, the senior VP of fiction and entertainment at Sky Germany, said, “Andreas Prochaska exhibited in the past his brave and thrilling narrative style through the use of his particular visual imagery. That’s exactly what we want for our Sky original productions. We are pleased to be able to mark the production stage of Das Boot.”

“Das Boot, the most important and acclaimed anti-war film of its time, still resonates today,” commented David Ellender, the president of global distribution and co-productions at Sonar Entertainment. “Andreas Prochaska is an acclaimed director and having him on board ensures that the original vision for the story and the series will hold true. Sonar is thrilled to be a partner on this prestigious production.”

Prochaska added: “Das Boot is a milestone in the history of anti-war films; it represents authenticity, suspense, drama, emotion and action. The series takes this one step further; it combines the claustrophobic atmosphere on the submarine with a strand set in the orbit of the resistance, thus creating strong female characters. This allows me, as the director, to transcribe this heritage into the modern art of serial storytelling.”