ARD, ORF, Superfilm ready Franz Kafka series to mark 100 years since writer’s death

German pubcaster ARD and Austria’s ORF have commissioned a six-part miniseries on writer Franz Kafka from Austrian prodco Superfilm.

David Schalko

Set to be released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Kafka’s death in June 2024, Kafka will be produced in cooperation with ARD’s regional subsidiaries NDR, WDR, SWR, BR, MDR, RBB, HR, SR and Radio Bremen, in coproduction with ORF and Superfilm.

Directed by David Schalko, production is expected to begin next spring. The scripts have been written by bestselling author Daniel Kehlmann in collaboration with Schalko, based on Reiner Stach’s three-volume biography of Kafka. The cast includes Nicholas Ofczarek, Lisa Fries and Daniel Brühl.

Jörg Schönenborn, coordinator of fiction at ARD, said: “The cooperation of the entire ARD in association with ORF is an impressive example of how strong we are when we combine our energies and invest in such an outstanding project.”

Schalko added: “We already optioned Reiner Stach’s outstanding biographies eight years ago and since then I have been working on this project in various forms.”