Netflix greenlights raft of originals as part of $570m German content push

Dark Ways mystery series 1899

Netflix has greenlit a raft of new projects as part of its €500m (US$570m) investment in German-language content between 2021 and 2023.

The streaming giant’s German-language content team on Tuesday showcased 19 productions, comprising nine scripted series, five films and five unscripted titles, from across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, all launching globally in 2022.

Around five of the projects had been announced previously as Netflix pledged to double its investment in the region to €500m over a two-year period.

Among the newly announced projects were a pair of book adaptations from German producer Constantin Films.

The first, Achtsam Morden (working title), based on Karsten Dusse’s novel of the same name, tells of a successful lawyer who, in a bid to find a better work/life balance, attends a mindfulness seminar and accidentally becomes a murderer in the process.

Netflix Germany also commissioned the six-part thriller series Liebes Kind (working title), based on a novel by Romy Hausmann. The project explores the power of obsession and is written and directed by Isabel Kleefeld and Julian Pörksen.

Also on the scripted side, Netflix Germany greenlit the action-thriller Kleo, produced by Zeitsprung Pictures; six-part revenge thriller Totenfrau, coproduced by Barry Films and Mona Film Productions; and licensed the Swiss series Neumatt, from Zodiac Pictures and SRF.

On its German-language movie slate, Netflix revealed new titles including the spaghetti western Blood & Gold, produced by Rat Pack Filmproduktion; Buba, a spin-off from the series How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast); an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel Im Westen Nichts Neues; and action-thriller Paradise, which poses the question how many years of life would you give up if it meant you could pay off your student loans or buy your dream apartment.

Unscripted titles include true-crime series Soering, which follows the criminal case of Jens Söring who was convicted in 1990 of murdering the parents of his then-girlfriend; documentary thriller Wirecard, in which Financial Times journalist Dan McCrum provides insights into his six-year investigation into the German fintech company Wirecard; and feature-length documentary Facing North, which goes behind the scenes of a competition between two Swiss men who climbed the most dangerous north faces in the Alps.

Netflix also highlighted previously announced series such as Queer Eye Germany, the first international spin-off of the American reality format. The project, produced by ITV Studios Germany, launches on March 9.

Other previously announced projects on the 2022 slate are King of Stonks (previously developed as Cable Cash), a six-part series set in the financial world and created by producers and showrunners Philipp Käßbohrer and Matthias Murmann; modern historical series The Empress from writer and showrunner Katharina Eyssen; and mystery series 1899, created by showrunners Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar of production company Dark Ways.

Netflix has also unveiled its latest Russian original, a neo-noir detective drama called ZATO. The mystery series is about an ambitious journalist Kristina and a cop Dashkin leading an investigation into the disappearance of a child in a restricted access town Lobachevsk – 4 in the 1990s.

The series will be director by Darya Zhuk and Stanislav Libin with Misha Shprits, Ilya Shein and Ksenia Mchedlidze writing the script. Irina Smirnova and Alexander Kushaev are the producers.

In related news, Netflix has greenlit two preschool animated series from DreamWorks Animation (DWA) that will join the host of other DWA series on the global streamer.

These include Gabby’s Dollhouse, which has been renewed for an additional 20 episodes by Netflix. The new series are Not Quite Narwhal and Dew Drop Diaries, both of which have been ordered for two seasons consisting of 26 episodes in total.

Not Quite Narwhal follows a unicorn who believes he’s a narwhal like the rest of his family under the sea and is based on the children’s book of the same name by Jessie Sima.

Dew Drop Diaries, created by Rick Suvalle, follows a group of three-inch tall family fairies who live inside teensy fairy houses on brownstone balcony gardens in a big city. They have been assigned to human families to secretly help out around the house with the little things that can often fall through the cracks.