Beta, MR prep $17m Maximilian epic

European producers Beta Film and MR Film have begun production on the €15.5m (US$17m) historical miniseries Maximilian for broadcasters ORF and ZDF.

Shooting began this week at the Cistercian Monastery of Zettl in Austria and is scheduled to continue for four months across Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The three-part miniseries follows a love story that laid the foundations of the Hapsburg world kingdom towards the end of the Middle Ages.

Austrian filmmaker Andreas Prochaska (Anatomy of Evil) is directing, while the production features actors including Christa Théret, Jannis Niewoehner, Alix Poisson, Jean-Hugues Anlgade and Tobias Moretti.

“This major international project under the leadership of the ORF and in association with the ZDF brings European and Austrian history to life, along with the men and women who wrote it centuries ago,” said ORF TV director Mag Kathrin Zechner.