Malta – Filming has wrapped on the eagerly awaited new event series "Das Boot", coproduced by Bavaria Fiction, Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment, with final scenes filmed in Malta, both in the water tank and on open water.
Inspired by the Oscar and Golden Globe nominated masterpiece by Wolfgang Petersen and Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s bestselling novel, the 32.8 million USD production, filmed in Munich, La Rochelle, Prague and Malta, will bring the senseless reality of World War Two to life with two storylines running parallel on land and sea. Das Boot will premiere end of 2018 in Sky territories Germany, Austria, Italy, UK and Ireland. Co-production partner Sonar Entertainment will handle international distribution in the rest of the world.
As part of the 105-day shoot, the production filmed on the streets of La Rochelle to show the upcoming resistance and unrest on shore and also in the original submarine naval base. The external U-Boat, used at the port of La Rochelle and off the coast in Malta, took two months to refurbish and weighed an impressive 240 tons. The internal U-Boat set, based in Prague and brought hydraulically to life via a gimbal, took 15 weeks to build and, at 45m, was complete with Control room, Radio room, Torpedo room, Captain’s Bunk, Petty Officer’s Bunk’s, Diesel and Electric engine rooms, Galley, Hydrophone Room, Conning Tower and Captain’s Quarters.
On the last day of production, the series director, Andreas Prochaska, commented “We’ve worked hard to entwine and differentiate the narratives of the upcoming Resistance in La Rochelle and the claustrophobic life aboard U-612. We believe that the energy created by cutting between the two storylines will keep audiences hooked and eager to know what is happening on the other side. The scale of this production, including filming in four different countries with 79 actors and almost 1,000 extras, has been an incredible project to be a part of, and I would like to thank the cast and crew for all their hard work.”
Das Boot features an international cast from Germany, France, UK and the US, including Vicky Krieps (“Phantom Thread”), Tom Wlaschiha (“Game of Thrones”), Lizzy Caplan (“Masters of Sex”), Vincent Kartheiser (“Mad Men”), James D’Arcy (“MARVEL’s Agent Carter”), Thierry Frémont (“Juste un regard”), August Wittgenstein (“The Crown”), Rainer Bock (“Inglourious Basterds”), Rick Okon (“Tatort”), Leonard Scheicher (“Finsterworld”), Robert Stadlober (“Summer Storm”), Franz Dinda (“The Cloud”) and Stefan Konarske (“The Young Karl Marx”).
Vicky Krieps, who plays Navy Translator Simone Strasser whose brother is on board U-612, commented, “It has been incredibly rewarding playing Simone Strasser especially due to her bravery as she faces extremely difficult choices whilst battling her head and heart. The character of Simone is the one person to connect the world on the U-boat with the storyline on shore and her decisions set in motion a tangled web of lies and deceit. I am proud of the work on Das Boot, and how we bring these amazing stories to the small screen.”
Rick Okon, who portrays Captain Klaus Hoffmann on his first mission, adds, “Playing Captain Hoffmann on board U-612 has truly been a wonderful yet intense experience. Filming in a replica U-boat brought home the shocking realisation of the severe life experienced on board these boats and, with 30,000 leaving port and only a small fraction returning, it gave me a real sense of the brutality involved in this war.”
Tony Saint (Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley, The Interceptor) and Johannes W. Betz (Der Tunnel, Die Spiegel-Affäre) are the head writers. Das Boot is directed by Andreas Prochaska, one of the most renowned German-speaking filmmakers, credits include Das finstere Tal (The Dark Valley) and Das Wunder von Kärnten (A Day for a Miracle), which was awarded the International Emmy. Prochaska’s further accolades include the Deutsche Filmpreis (German Film Award), the Romy, and the Bayerische Fernsehpreis (Bavarian Television Award). Executive Producers are Moritz Polter (Spotless, Crossing Lines), Oliver Vogel (Dengler, SOKO Stuttgart) and Jan S. Kaiser (Hotel Lux, Brecht) for Bavaria Fiction; Marcus Ammon and Frank Jastfelder for Sky Deutschland; and Jenna Santoianni (Taboo, The Shannara Chronicles) for Sonar Entertainment.
