With Shadow Play, his first drama set against historical events, Midnight Sun’s co-creator is bringing the spectre of Nazism to the screens to let people reflect on today’s turbulent times.
Last week at C21 International Drama Summit in London, Mårlind took part in a case study about his next event series Shadow Play, alongside Studio Canal TV’s Rola Bauer, Bron Studios’ David Davoli, ZDF’s Simone Emmelius and Viaplay/Viasat Nordic’s Fredrik Ljungberg. The eight-part series is produced by Studiocanal’s company Tandem Productions in Germany with Bron Studios. Studiocanal handles world distribution.
Set in the summer of 1946 in Berlin, the series centres on US cop Max McLaughlin who arrives in the city to help create a police force in the chaotic aftermath of WW2. Officially, Max’s goal is to take down ‘Englemacher Gladow’, the Capone of post-war Berlin, but at the same time, he undertakes a secret crusade to try to find his missing brother who is killing ex-Nazis in hiding.
“I love creative, totally new material” commented Mårlind. “Berlin is a mythological city, like London or Paris and at the time, the city embodied double play, deceit and survival. 1946 is an unexplored time that made me tick. There are lots of shows and films about WW2 and the Cold War, but few about the post-war period," said the writer/director who did “more research than with any other project” to get facts right. “At the time, there were 150,000 reported rapes; men were either dead or injured. There was no police force”, noted the Swedish writer.
“After WW2, only women, kids and elder people were left in Berlin, so the women, called Trümmerfrau, were in charge of rebuilding the city,” added ZDF’s Head of Feature Film and Co-Production Simone Emmelius. For her, Mårlind will bring “a fresh angle to the story, which will be told “from a US perspective [through the character of Max], by a Swedish creator”. The series should appeal to large audiences by ‘combining history with entertainment’.
“At a time when populism is growing around the world, it’s important to remind people of the meaning of democracy and freedom,” noted Emmelius.
Mårlind adds: “Two-three years ago, when I started working on the project, people said: who cares about the Nazis. But today it’s very different and we even have a US president with Nazis supporting him!”
Rola Bauer who had followed Mårlind’s previous Studiocanal collaboration on Midnight Sun, said the project resonated to her as a Canadian-born, living in Germany. “I feel a bit of an outsider, and Måns has created characters who never really find their place.”
Contacted by Bauer to get involved in the series, both David Davoli, Bron Studios’ SVP, and Fredrik Ljungberg, programme director at NENT Group’s Viaplay and Viasat, were convinced by Mårlind’s strong material and his creative voice. “The project shows that there is hope in darkness, which is what I love about it,” said Davoli.
Bauer feels having like-minded co-production partners is a key asset for Shadow Play. “At a time when lots of dramas go to Amazon or Netflix in one all-rights deal, it’s very rewarding when you find the right co-production partners who share the same vision.”
Besides, Germany's ZDF who will launch the show on its 10pm slot, and the streaming service Viaplay, handling the Nordics, Shadow Play will be available in France (Canal+), Poland (Canal+) and Holland (NPO).
Filming is set to start in spring 2019, with Mårlind sharing the directing duties with his usual partner Björn Stein. The cast will include major A-list talent to be announced at a later date.