German production group Constantin Film is teaming with public broadcaster ZDF on a two-part mini-series based on the life of Anne Frank.
The television event, which Constantin will produce together with Munich-based shingle Moovie, is set to deliver in 2015, on the 70th anniversary of Frank’s death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Experience German TV scribe Andrea Stoll will pen the script for the miniseries, which Constantin says will be a more modern approach to the tragic tale. The series will trace the lives of Frank, her family and friends starting three years before they were forced into hiding by the Nazis. The focus in part will be the transformation of the young Frank from an extroverted young girl before her time in hiding to the increasingly introverted and reflective teenager seen in her diaries. Oliver Berben will produce the mini-series with Constantin chief executive Martin Moszkowicz acting as executive producer.
The Constantin/Moovie project is the latest in a series of Anne Frank-themed films coming down the pipeline ahead of the 2015 anniversary of her death. Most recently, Ari Folman, the Oscar-nominated director of Waltz With Bashir, announced a new animated feature based on Frank’s life, which he will write and direct.
The story of Anne Frank has been told many times on film and TV. The 1959 biopic The Diary of Anne Frank, featuring Mille Perkins as Anne, won three Oscars, including a Best Supporting Actress honor for Shelley Winters. A 1980 TV movie based on Anne Frank’s life, starring Melissa Gilbert as Anne and Maximilian Schell as her father Otto, received multiple Emmy nominations.
