Yahoo News Germany’s ZDF Enterprises, NDF Team to Form FictionMagnet
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ZDF Enterprises, a division of German broadcasting powerhouse ZDF, has partnered with independent production outfit Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft (“Mountain Medic”), to form FictionMagnet Producktions.
The new entity will develop and produce fictional TV formats for ZDF. NDF will hold 51% of the joint venture and ZDF 49%. The company will be based in Unterfohring and will be managed by the two NDF CEOs, Eric Welbers and Matthias Walther (pictured).
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First up from FictionMagnet will be “In Their 50s,” a TV movie based on 1995 property “Um die 30,” for which writers Dominik Raacke and Ralf Huettner won the TeleStar award for best writer for a series. Raacke and Huettner will reunite for “In Their 50s.”
Fred Burcksen, president and CEO of ZDF Enterprises, said: “Pooling the program-making expertise, international experience and corporate commitment of our two companies creates the ideal conditions for making successful German productions for the domestic and international markets.”
Welbers and Walther said: “Collaboration on fictional productions by NDF and ZDF began back in 1988 with ‘The Heritage of the Guldenburgs’ and a close and highly successful partnership with ZDF and ZDF Enterprises has developed over the years, which we are now reshaping for the future.”
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