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Bayern doc kicks off Amazon German originals

Tech giant Amazon has commissioned four new German originals for its Prime Video service, including a behind-the-scenes look at European football giants Bayern Munich.

Georgia Brown

The as-yet-untitled Bayern Munich doc is currently being filmed by local production company W&B Television.

Amazon has had success with sports docs in the past, with its All Or Nothing access doc series recently spotlighting UK Premier League sides Man City and Tottenham.

Amazon has picked up rights to show UEFA Champions League football in Germany from the 2021/22 series, with Sebastien Hellmann and Jonas Friedrich unveiled as the presenters of Amazon’s coverage at yesterday’s event in Munich.

In scripted, the streamer has commissioned The Gryphon, a fantasy series based on the cult novel of the same name by German author Wolfgang Hohlbein.

The plot focuses on three outsiders on their way to adulthood who come into contact with a fantastic world called the Black Tower where a world-devouring monster has been mercilessly plundering and subjugating all living creatures for centuries.

The Gryphon is a production from W&B Television in cooperation with DogHaus Film for Amazon Studios. The executive producers are Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann (The Lives of Others, Dark) and André Zoch (How to Sell Drugs Online Fast).

Six-part series Luden is an Amazon Original series set in the red light district of Hamburg at the end of the 1970s, to be made by Munich production company Neuesuper (Hindafing, Acht Tage).

The Luden writers’ room includes Niklas Hoffmann, Peter Kocyla, Vivien Hoppe and Rafael Parente, who also acts as producer with Simon Amberger and Korbinian Dufter.

Gefesselt (working title) will be Prime Video’s first true crime series from Germany. Produced by Neue Bioskop, the series describes the search for a serial killer who terrorized Hamburg between 1986 and 1992. Directed by Florian Schwarz, six episodes will be filmed this year for broadcast in spring 2022.

Elsewhere, there were renewals for the Amazon Original series Der Beischläfer, produced by The Amazing Film Company and coproducer Ring of Fire, and the Amazon Original comedy show Binge Reloaded, from Redseven Entertainment. Both formats are set for a second season.

The streamer has also secured exclusive rights to a number of selected bestsellers by bestselling author Sebastian Fitzek.

“In addition to our fantastic global original series and movies that audiences around the world love, we know viewers also want to see unique, authentic and entertaining local stories that reflect the places and faces on their doorstep,” said Georgia Brown, director of European Amazon Originals at Prime Video.

“We are dedicated to producing a curated slate of ambitious and high-quality German series across genres, and we are super-excited to take those stories to 150 million Prime members around the world.”

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