Articles about ORF
Preparing for battle
Rise of the Raven recreates the 15th century Battle of Belgrade and one warrior’s determination to protect Europe from an Ottoman invasion. Costume designer Bea Merkovits and production designer Márton Vörös detail their work on this historical epic.
Crash course
Upcoming German drama Hundertdreizehn explores a single story through connected characters and multiple points of view. Writer Arndt Stüwe outlines the scriptwriting process and discusses his love of non-linear storytelling.
Extra special
As Vienna Blood returns for a fourth season, DQ writer James Rampton considers the life of a supporting artist after making his screen debut in the return of this historical crime drama.
Miracle workers
Director David Schalko and writer Daniel Kehlmann join NDR head of fiction Christian Granderath and ORF head of features Klaus Lintschinger to reveal how they came together for a biopic of Franz Kafka, airing in the centenary year of the celebrated novelist’s death.
Paw & order
Actor John Reardon and dog master Sherri Davis spill the secrets of working with Diesel vom Burgimwald, the canine star of Canadian police procedural Hudson & Rex, as the show approaches its 100th episode.
Global swarming
The Swarm is the eagerly anticipated big-budget adaptation of Frank Schätzing’s ecological disaster novel. DQ buzzes around production designer Julian Wagner, director Barbara Eder and VFX supervisor Jan Stoltz to hear about filming in Italy, shooting in water tanks and creating a pod of sleeping whales.
New Blood
The team behind Vienna Blood talk about reuniting amid the pandemic to film the second season of the period drama, in which a young advocate of Sigmund Freud helps a veteran detective crack murder cases in 1900s Austria.
Ego trip
Co-writer and director Marvin Kren and executive producer Moritz Polter discuss making dark Austrian drama Freud, which takes viewers inside the mind of a young Sigmund Freud.
Once upon a time in Vienna
Delve into the mind of Sigmund Freud as Austria’s ORF and Netflix partner for an eight-part series that sees the young doctor test out his unconventional theories while solving a murder conspiracy in 1890s Vienna.
Murder in Vienna
Period crime drama Vienna Blood stands out as a unique European project, an adaptation of Frank Tallis’s novels that has been produced in English for German and Austrian broadcasters. DQ finds out more.
Making a Murderer
Writer/director David Schalko and producer John Lueftner discuss making German-language drama M – A City Hunts A Murderer, which is based on Fritz Lang’s iconic 1931 movie.
On the hunt
Fritz Lang’s classic thriller M is reimagined for television by David Schalko in M: Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (A City Hunts a Murderer). DQ met the director and the cast of the unsettling six-parter on set in Vienna.
Welcome to Pregau
Nothing is as it seems in the sleepy town of Pregau, which lends its name to a German/Austrian crime drama. Writer/director Nils Willbrandt introduces DQ to some of the challenges of piecing the thriller together.
Being Maximilian
One day Jannis Niewöhner was shooting an art-house film, the next he was giving a rallying speech to 150 extras on the set of a German historical miniseries. He tells DQ about period drama Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne.
Taken to the Max
Martin Ambrosch, the writer behind German crime drama Anatomy of Evil and the forthcoming historical series Maximilian, tells DQ about the challenge of meeting his own ambitions on screen.
Max power
Andreas Prochaska, director of Austrian period drama Maximilian, reveals the challenges of realising an epic, action-packed script while sticking to a strict budget.
ABC uncovers Austria’s scripted gems
With US networks searching the world for scripted series, the Writers Room spotlight this week falls on Austria, where two formats have been picked up by ABC.
