Production is underway on German period drama “Empire Oktoberfest,” set in Munich in 1900 and starring Mišel Maticevic (“Babylon Berlin”), Martina Gedeck (“The Lives of Others”), Klaus Steinbacher (“Das Boot”), and Mercedes Mueller (“Passenger 23”). Beta Film, which successfully brought “Babylon Berlin” to market, will launch it internationally at Mipcom in October.
“Empire Oktoberfest” (working title) will follow a fierce battle between two family breweries and shed light on the history of the world-famous festival, where Munich’s powerful secretly carry out their affairs. The story revolves around a young girl who falls in love with a poor brewer’s son. Their relationship is opposed by the girl’s father, a rich mobster who has come to town to try to bully his way into the inner circle of Munich’s brewery dynasties.
Shooting is underway and will take in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Prague. Production wraps in mid-August. Zeitsprung and Violet Pictures are on production duty. BR, ARD Degeto, WDR and MDR are co-producing the series, which will be on the Das Erste channel in Germany.
“The power-obsessed milieu of Munich’s breweries in 1900 is a fascinating setting for a series,” producers Michael Souvignier, Till Derenbach and Alexis von Wittgenstein said in a statement. “The contrast between roughness, gloom and the ease of the world-famous Schwabing bohemia with eccentric artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Thomas Mann is a great, exciting stage for a family epic of Shakespearean scale.”