The TV series that reimagines Angela Merkel as a smalltown detective has found a U.S. home.
Kino Lorber’s MHz Choice streamer has picked up Miss Merkel from Fremantle, two 90-minute tongue-in-cheek mysteries, with a third planned.
Starring vet German actress Katharina Thalbach (The Tin Drum), the RTL series, which has sold to a number of European networks, is based on the books by writer, humorist and actor David Safier (Berlin, Berlin). It imagines the former German chancellor moving to a small town with her husband and her pug, Helmut, as she discovers a new calling as an amateur detective. Safier pens the adaptations with Stefan Cantz (Tatort, Nord Nord Nord), with Christoph Schnee (Homicide Hills, Tatort) directing.
Lance Schwulst, EVP of Content Strategy, MHz Choice, said he had “committed to the series before my sales agent had finished her pitch.”
“It’s such an idiosyncratic premise that I knew it had to be right,” he added. “Miss Merkel will be another comedic gem from Germany on MHz Choice and I’m delighted that a third episode is planned.”
MHz Choice is the U.S. home of Babylon Berlin, the neo-noir Sky/Ard Degeto series that was recently dropped by Netflix in the States. The streamer, which was formed via a JV between Kino Lorber’s MHz Choice and Topic, also shows the likes of The Killing, The Bridge, Detective Montalbano, The Sea Beyond and Pagan Peak.