Netflix Picks Up Hitler Comedy ‘Look Who’s Back’ for Most of the World

The 'Borat'-style feature was a sleeper hit in Germany, where it has earned $22 million.

February 8, 2016 2:01am

Netflix Takes Hitler Comedy — Constantin Film Verleih

Netflix has snatched up global rights, outside of a handful of select territories, to German hit comedy Look Who’s Back.

The adaptation of Timur Vermes‘ bestseller has Adolf Hitler waking up, unharmed and unrepentant, in modern-day Berlin.

Netflix will take global rights outside of German-speaking Europe, Benelux, Japan, Taiwan, the Czech Republic and Slovakia for the feature. The film will be available on the SVOD service on April 9.

Look Who’s Back was the sleeper hit of the year in Germany, earning $21.9 million (€19.6 million) in general release in the country. Director David Wnendt opted for a Borat-style approach in adapting Vermes’ novel, combining fictional scenes with hidden-camera encounters, in which actor Oliver Masucci, as Hitler, meets up with regular Germans on the streets of Berlin.

Beta Cinema, who is handling world sales on the film, negotiated the Netflix deal.