Frank Doelger, who was an executive producer on Game Of Thrones between 2011 and 2019, provided an update on his new company in Germany during a Series Mania panel today.
Doelger is now creative director at Intaglio Films, a joint venture between local outfits Beta Film and ZDF Enterprises that was formed in 2019.
Discussing relocating from the U.S. industry to Germany to work on the new company, the executive said he “didn’t want to repeat himself” and was looking for “a new challenge”.
“Game Of Thrones succeeded because of luck, timing and the talent involved, but it’s virtually impossible to create a show like that,” he suggested. “I decided I didn’t want to create another Game Of Thrones, despite many people thinking it was possible.”
Instead, Doelger aimed to take his experience working on large-scale shows to the German market, but with a focus on producing English-language projects.
First up for Intaglio will be The Swarm, an English-language thriller series adapted from the book by German author Frank Schätzing. The eight-part show shot in Italy last year and Doelger revealed during today’s talk that it is now in post-production and will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2023.
The exec also added that there was an “ongoing conversation” about doing a second series.
The Swarm comes from an intriguing mix of co-production partners, including France Télévisions, RAI, ORF, SRF, Scandinavia’s Nordic Entertainment Group and Hulu Japan.
On that setup, Doelger said, “For so long I thought about international co-production being about North America and Europe, but adding a Japanese storyline really expanded The Swarm.”
The exec also added that his surveillance thriller Concordia will shoot in September this year, while Doing Good, set in the world of fictional human rights organization Cyrus, will be shot in 2023.
