Apple TV+ Joins ZDF On Medical Drama ‘KRANK Berlin’

Jesse Whittock
·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV+ has boarded the fast-paced German medical drama KRANK Berlin.

Apple has joined ZDFneo on the eight-part series, which is from Violet Pictures and Real Film Berlin and co-created by former British emergency room physician turned screenwriter Samuel Jefferson and Brimstone and Glory maker Viktor Jakovleski.

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Apple TV+ will have exclusive global rights. In Germany and German-speaking territories, the streamer will have an exclusive 12-month window following the series’ worldwide premiere, with the series then also available on ZDFneo in those territories. No premiere date has been set.

The show stars Haley Louise Jones, who recently appeared in Netflix Germany breakout series Dear Child. She plays Dr. Parker, a young medic managing a a chaotic emergency room in the toughest and most overcrowded hospital in Berlin while seeking a fresh start after her private life implodes in Munich.

Trying to implement necessary reforms, she meets resistance from the underpaid, poorly equipped and chronically fatigued hospital staff who only survive with an indispensable dose of black humor. But in the face of an increasingly merciless healthcare system, the battered team must put aside their differences and pull together to save lives.

Slavko Popadić (Crooks) stars with Jones, alongside an ensemble cast including Şafak Şengül (Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush), Aram Tafreshian (Dogs of Berlin), Samirah Breuer (The Gryphon), Bernhard Schütz (Barbarians) and Peter Lohmeyer (I Don’t Work Here).

Violet Pictures’ Alexis von Wittgenstein (Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood) and Real Film’s Henning Kamm (Unorthodox) are executive producers. Alex Schaad (Skin Deep) and Fabian Möhrke (Eichwald MdB) are the directors. Beta Film, which had the international rights, brokered the deal with Apple.

The series was one of the last Sky Deutschland ordered before it pulled out of original scripted commissioning almost a year ago. Dozens of projects then returned to the market, with ZDFneo jumping on KRANK Berlin. Shooting wrapped in East Berlin late last year.

The series is Apple’s latest investment in the German TV market. To date, it has ordered one series outright, UFA Fiction’s comedy Where’s Wanda?, and boarded sci-fi epic Constellation, which was made by Turbine Studios Germany and Haut et Court from France with an international cast. We understand the streamer has been in development on a handful of other projects.

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