Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 6, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The partner company will focus on producing high-quality programmes for the international market, such as a documentary series on the Cold War that is currently in development. As part of the three-year agreement with Senator, Petersen will oversee these projects as executive producer through his production company Radiant.
The joint venture is based under the umbrella of Pro Programme und Produktionen für Bühne und Fernsehen GmbH in Cologne, a production company in which Senator recently acquired a 51 percent majority stake.
“The miniseries format opens up great creative possibilities that cannot be realised in the same way in film”, says Wolfgang Petersen. “I am particularly pleased to be able to return to my television beginnings with such a dynamic and forward-looking partner as Senator.”
“As feature-film producers who, since taking a stake in PRO, have also been creating fictional and documentary material originally for television”, says Helge Sasse, Chairman of the Management Board of Senator Entertainment AG, “with a view to our US involvement, it was only natural for us to look internationally for TV cooperations too. We are extraordinarily pleased that over the coming years we will be able to work with one of the very few German directors and producers who enjoys an outstanding international reputation.”
Petersen made his television debut with I WILL KILL YOU, WOLF and subsequently directed six two-hour episodes of the series TATORT. These episodes include REIFEZEUGNIS with Nastassja Kinski and Christian Quadflieg, still the most successful television film in the history of German television.
Petersen began his feature-film career in 1973 by winning the German Film Award as Best New Director for ONE OR THE OTHER OF US. These early successes also include SMOG, for which Petersen won the Silver Prix Futura in Berlin in 1975, and BLACK AND WHITE LIKE DAYS AND NIGHTS, awarded the prize for Best Director in 1978. With the controversial film THE CONSEQUENCE, Petersen also gained extensive international recognition in 1977.
However, the name Petersen became familiar only with the submarine adventure DAS BOOT (1981) – to this day the most successful German post-war film. Two of the six Oscar® nominations received by the film were for Petersen (Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay). In AOL.de’s most recent poll, DAS BOOT was voted the best German film of all time by a wide margin.
After directing THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984) and ENEMY MINE (1985), Wolfgang Petersen moved his residence entirely to the USA, and his career took another great leap forward:
In 1993 he directed IN THE LINE OF FIRE, an outstanding thriller with Clint Eastwood that received three Oscar nominations: John Malkovich for Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Editing. Petersen repeated this triumph in 1995 with the box-office hits OUTBREAK with Dustin Hoffman and AIR FORCE ONE with Harrison Ford (1997). In 2000, Petersen returned to the water with George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and the seafaring drama THE PERFECT STORM. And with TROY, based on a screenplay inspired by Homer by David Benioff, Petersen transported his audiences, as well as Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom, back around 3,000 years to the late Bronze Age in 2004.
Alongside his film work, Petersen also expanded successfully into US television in 2001 and produced the television series THE AGENCY for CBS through Radiant Productions.
In addition to his usual directing and production work on his own films, Petersen also regularly acts as producer on other films, for example BICENTENNIAL MAN (with Robin Williams), RED CORNER (with Richard Gere) AND INSTINCT (with Anthony Hopkins).
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