Munich – Step into a world of dark valleys and archaic customs: Beta Film boards the new Sky Germany series Pagan Peak. The eight-hour high-concept thriller series is an original production by Sky, which celebrated record ratings with the gritty crime series Babylon Berlin. Academy Award-winning producer duo Wiedemann & Berg (Netflix’ “Dark”) just started shooting Pagan Peak in the icy Alps with Julia Jentsch (Academy Award nominee, “Sophie Scholl – The Final Days”) and Nicholas Ofczarek (“The Team”) starring. The multi-awarded writer/director duo Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert (“Rivals Forever – The Sneaker Battle”, “Victoria & the Secret of Crocodile Mansion”) are creative heads of the series.
When a gruesomely staged body is found, propped up right on the German-Austrian border in the Alps, both countries are sending one detective each to investigate. For German detective Ellie Stocker (Julia Jentsch), this is the first real challenge of her career; her Austrian counterpart Gedeon Winter (Nicholas Ofczarek) though seems to have lost any ambitions in his job. Very soon, they find more crime scenes with symbolically posed victims. Ellie finds herself under increasing pressure to understand the deranged killer’s motives so she can stop him. The hunt leads them ever deeper in the dark valleys and archaic Alpine customs – and the paranoid world of the killer. Pagan Peak is inspired by the Danish-Swedish hit format “Broen” or “Bron” from Filmlance International, part of Endemol Shine Group.
“We were so excited by the development of the story of our new German Sky Original Production Pagan Peak that we couldn’t wait to start shooting,” says Marcus Ammon, Senior Vice President Fiction & Entertainment at Sky Germany. “We are looking forward to be working with Wiedemann & Berg, the directors Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert, as well as the two exceptional main actors Julia Jentsch and Nicholas Ofczarek.”
Quirin Berg: “We are very pleased to be able to contribute another strong entry for Sky in this exciting time for drama series. Inspired by “The Bridge,” one of the most successful European contributions to international TV, we are producing an original German-Austrian thriller series with Pagan Peak, which takes us away to the visually breathtaking world of the Alps. We are tremendously happy to continue our collaboration with Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert – two exceptionally creative people.”
Pagan Peak is produced by Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann for Sky Deutschland in co-production with Dieter and Jakob Pochlatko’s epo-film produktionsges.m.b.h. in Austria. Austrian author Mike Majzen contributed to the script. Pagan Peak is supported by the FFF Bayern, the CINESTYRIA Filmcommission and Fonds, as well as the Filmförderung des Landes Salzburg. Beta Film is handling world sales.
