Yahoo Finance Constantin Boss Oliver Berben Seeks Partners for Brand Building as Premium Shows ‘Hagen’ and ‘Smilla’s Sense of Snow’ Head for Mipcom
Oliver Berben, who took the reins of German production and distribution powerhouse Constantin Film on March 1, faces a German media landscape that is “changing radically and quickly,” he says. In response, he is adjusting the company’s approach to the business.
He welcomes the government’s proposed reform of the German Film Law, which will change the country’s production incentives, including for television, and will introduce an obligation on broadcasters and streamers to invest 20% of sales generated in Germany back into European productions, 70% of which would have to be in the German language.
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“You have stagnating funding of public broadcasters. You have declining revenues for the private stations. The question is: Is the model functioning altogether? It is not, if we just keep on doing the same thing again and again.”
He adds, “Everything is changing, and these changes, by the way, are good. Us, as producers, we need to find completely new ways of how to produce a show and how to finance it.”
Streaming is a bit part of the equation, of course. Constantin’s thriller “Dear Child,” based on the novel by Romy Hausmann, has racked up 51 million views for Netflix, and is one of the streamer’s top 10 non-English-language scripted show worldwide.
Constantin kept some rights on “Dear Child,” including theatrical adaptation rights to the book. “We really look at each and every entity and IP and try to find the best way together with our partners to find the perfect deal,” Berben says.
One of its upcoming productions for Netflix is comedy crime show “Murder Mindfully,” starring Tom Schilling, based on the hit novel by Karsten Dusse, one of the most successful IPs to have come out of Germany in the past five years, according to Berben. “This is a perfect example of creating an IP brand together with Netflix,” he says.
With talent like Schilling in mind, Berben notes: “We’re not doing exclusive deals with actors. It’s different for filmmakers and writers. Talent deals include Baran bo Odar, Bully Herbig, Florian David Fitz and David Wnendt. So we’re heavily investing, when it comes to filmmakers and creators, and partnering up with them.”
One of Constantin’s upcoming shows is “Smilla’s Sense of Snow,” based on Peter Høeg’s novel, with Amma Asante directing. As with its other series the approach is, “Let’s try to find the perfect partners in each territory and keep a lot of the rights for ourselves.”
“The idea here, from a financial point of view, was to find two to three anchor partners on which we have a safety net of 60%, 70% of the budget, and then finance the rest ourselves and keep the rest of the rights for us until the show is finished, and then sell it here,” he says.
Viaplay has Nordic rights, and ARD Degeto and Netflix are the partners in Germany. ITV Studios is handling distribution elsewhere.
Another big show for Constantin is fantasy drama “Hagen,” a reimagining of the medieval “Nibelungen” folk saga. With a budget of around Euros 45 million ($48.8 million), it is the biggest budgeted German production ever. It has been produced both as a six-part series and a feature film for theatrical release. Fremantle is handling worldwide distribution rights. RTL holds German streaming and free TV rights.
“The idea is, first, creating a new world and a new IP. And, second, if you’re going into a genre like this, the stakes and the expectations are very high, so you need a high budget,” Berben says.
Another big budget show Constantin is attached to is Roland Emmerich’s $150 million gladiator drama “Those About to Die,” which is streamed by Prime Video across several European territories, and by Peacock in the U.S. AGC handles international rights.
Prime Video reports that the show “broke all the goals in every territory” in Europe, Berben says, and they are now discussing a second season. “It’s a huge, incredible success for them, which is also then our success, and especially because we took this big risk creating a show like this with a high budget.”
Alongside its lengthy lineup of series, Constantin continues to strengthen its feature film lineup. In terms of theatrical distribution this includes acquisitions like “Baby Girl,” “The Last Showgirl” and “Megalopolis.” On the production front its leading titles include “Regretting You,” based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, and “September 5,” a possible Oscar contender.
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