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Munich, 28 September 2010. With Hindenburg and Laconia, Beta Film is bringing two internationally outstanding event productions to the TV trade fair MIPCOM in Cannes. The spectacular mini-series Hindenburg, shot in English with a budget of ten million euros, is one of the RTL highlights of 2011 and depicts the last journey and tragic explosion of the most famous zeppelin of all times. Also shot in English is the teamWorx/EOS/BBC-coproduction Laconia about the 1942 sinking of the British troop transporter and the ensuing dramatic rescue operation. Also among the 100 new hours of Beta’s line-up are the mini-series The Last Patriarch and the Spanish thriller Blue Skin, which was inspired by the feature-film shocker “Open Water.” Beta Film’s children and family label Wunderbox presents the exceptional Bible series Chi Rho – The Secret, as well as the two theatrical films Tiger Team and The Devil’s Kickers. MIPCOM starts on 4 October in Cannes. The dramatic and still unsolved mystery of the explosion of the Hindenburg (2 x 90’) just before it landed in New Jersey in 1937 ranks among the greatest catastrophes of civilian aviation. The mini-series by teamWorx and EOS tells the story of a German-American conspiracy devised by the industrialist van Zandt (Stacy Keach, “Prison Break”) who is hoping to make a fortune with helium. For airship constructor Merten Kroeger (Maximilian Simonischek, “Tausend Ozeane”) and his sweetheart Jennifer van Zandt (Lauren Lee Smith, “CSI”) a race against time begins to find the hidden bomb on the airship. Starring in further roles are Greta Scacchi (“Trojan Horse”), Heiner Lauterbach (“Dresden – The Inferno”) and Christiane Paul (“Jerry Cotton”); Philipp Kadelbach (“The Secret of the Whales”) directs. The Laconia (2 x 90’) affair, one of the most notorious and hotly debated conflicts of World War II, is based on a true event that had yet to be told from either a German or an Allied viewpoint. In 1942, at the height of the submarine war in the Atlantic, the German U-156 torpedoes the British troop transporter Laconia before the West-African coast. On board are civilians, women and children, wounded soldiers and 1,800 Italian prisoners of war perched together in the freight area. Defying all military rules, the U-Boot commander Hartenstein (Ken Duken, “Inglourious Basterds”, “War and Peace”) surfaces in order to save the wounded, but, despite a clearly visible Red Cross flag, is attacked by allied bombers. The script of the mini-series shot with a budget of over twelve million euros is by Alan Bleasdale (“Boys from the Backstuff”). The film stars Franka Potente (“Che – Part 2, “The Bourne Conspiracy“), Andrew Buchan (“The Fixer”), Thomas Kretschmann (“Romy,” “Mogadishu”), Lindsay Duncan (“Alice in Wonderland”) and Brian Cox (“Match Point,” “Troy”). The director is Uwe Janson (“Volcano”). Seen by up to 5.3 million viewers, The Last Patriarch (2x90’, UFA Filmproduktion/Six-Six-Eight) garnered a very good market share of over 21 percent on Germany’s ARD. It relates the turbulent story of successful marzipan manufacturer Konrad Hansen, whose family empire is on the brink of collapse when Chinese product pirates steal the secret recipe. Starring alongside Mario Adorf (“A Christmoose Carol”, “The Tin Drum”) are Hannelore Elsner (“Cherry Blossoms– Hanami”) and Ursula Kaven (“Volcano”). Michael Steinke (“Under the Moon of Love”) directs. The Wunderbox line-up comprises about 50 hours of new, high-quality programs for children ranging from pre-schoolers to teens. The Devil’s Kickers (1 x 90’, Ufa Cinema/Phoenix Film) spotlights a cool street-soccer gang while the Tiger Team (1 x 90’, ndF:/Family Pictures) is trying to find the elixir of eternal life in the Mountain of 1,000 Dragons in the Chinese jungle. The animated series Chi Rho – The Secret (26 x 22’ / 1 x 90’, Cross Media/KI.KA,/Trickompany/Beta Film), developed jointly by the Catholic and Evangelical churches of Germany, takes children on an exciting journey back in time to Biblical Palestine. In search of her abducted father, 12-year-old Cora visits the most important sites of the Old and New Testaments, thanks to a magical time-travel cube. With almost 900,000 admissions, the modern road movie Vincent Wants to Sea (Olga Film) is one of the hits of the year in Germany. Florian David Fitz (“Men in the City”), who also wrote the script, plays Vincent, who, in spite of his Tourette syndrome, cannot be dissuaded from fulfilling his mother’s last wish: to see the sea once last time. The Jerry Cotton books have sold about a billion copies in 14 different languages in over 50 countries to date. In the Rat Pack action comedy, Christian Tramitz (“Manitou’s Shoe”) plays the coolest of all heroes whose adventures unfold against the Manhattan skyline, and who categorically refuses to be distracted even by a gorgeous villainess (Penelope Cruz’ sister Monica Cruz, “Asterix at the Olympic Games”). Also in Beta Film’s new line-up is the Bernd Eichinger production about rapper Bushido, Electro Ghetto, directed by Uli Edel (“The Baader Meinhof-Complex,” “We Children from Bahnhof Zoo”), a production of Constantin Film and Rat Pack Filmproduktion, which drew more than half a million viewers into the theaters in Germany.
For further information: Beta Film Presse
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