TF1, ORF welcome Austria’s Sisi

Sisi is currently being filmed in the Baltics

French broadcaster TF1 and Austrian pubcaster ORF have picked up forthcoming royal drama series Sisi from Jan Mojto’s Beta Film.

The 6×60’ series, which has just started filming in the Baltics, is about the Austria’s Empress Elisabeth (nicknamed Sisi) who was a cultural icon at the end of the 19th century. The series will explore her entry into the royal family and her struggle to impose her ideals on the establishment.

RTL Group originally commissioned the series for its German streaming service TVNow, which will premiere it next year.

Beta Film is handling international sales of Sisi, which is produced by Germany’s Story House Pictures in collaboration with Satel Film and Beta. The series is written by Elena Hell and Robert Krause, and is based on Allison Pataki’s series of novels about the empress.

Story House’s Jens Freels is an executive producer, while Andreas Gutzeit serves as showrunner. Heinrich Ambrosch and Bettina Kuhn are working on the series for Satel, with RTL Group’s Sylke Poensgen also on board as an exec producer.

Story House has a long history of making factual history shows but has recently moved into more dramatic content. In March, the German prodco’s series One Day In…, which looks at a snapshot in history through the eyes of an everyday person, was acquired by local distributor ZDF Enterprises.