Production has begun on a new TV series touted as a sequel to Wolfgang Petersen’s submarine classic Das Boot, which grossed $80 million in cinemas worldwide in 1981 and saw additional release in extended versions as a TV miniseries.
While initially billed as a sequel to the 1981 film, the latest information pegs the new production as a reboot based on the same events that inspired the earlier movie, as well as the 1973 novel of the same name by Lothar-Günther Buchheim.
Picking up in 1942, the series will focus on the events of the submarine war in the seas during WWII, and also follow battles on land in France and throughout Europe.
The eight-episode series, scheduled for release in Europe next year, is being helmed by Austrian director Andreas Prochaska, a veteran of German TV whose film The Dark Valley screened at the 2014 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
An international cast features familiar faces like James D’Arcy (Dunkirk), Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex), Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men’s Pete Campbell), and Thomas Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones’s Jaqen H’ghar).
Other cast members include Rainer Bock (Inglourious Basterds), Rick Okon, August Wittgenstein, Vicky Krieps, Franz Dinda, and Robert Stadlober.
The 3.5-month shoot began late last month, and has now moved to Prague’s Barrandov Studios for filming. Additional locations include Munich, Malta, and La Rochelle, France.
While it’s not known what sequences may be shot in Prague, underwater scenes are expected to be shot in Malta’s extensive water tank facilities, which were also utilized by recent productions like Captain Phillips and Kon-Tiki.
Over the past year, high-profile TV series such as Amazon’s Britannia, The History Channel’s Knightfall, and National Geographic’s Genius have each been filmed at Barrandov Studios.
The new Das Boot series will be broadcast on Sky TV in the UK, Germany, and Italy in 2018.
Lead photo: Erwin Leder in the 1981 Das Boot
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