ALARM FOR COBRA 200

Special thanks to Elke SCHUBERT (action concept) and Stephan PEYERL

Is Hermann Joha the last hope of German television fiction? After enjoying a fine summer with Lasko - Die Faust Gottes (the incredible new show of his company, action concept) the man who has revolutionized tv series in his country by bringing action of a blockbuster scale every week, triumphs with episode 200 of his flagship series: Alarm for Cobra 11 (Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizeï).

Action concept, the production company created and helmed by Hermann Joha, made History on German television in 1996 when Joha took over from another company the destiny of Cobra 11, a new pedestrian cop show (where he was working on the stunts) and made it a genre in its own respect, delivering Lethal Weapon, James Bond and Die Hard every week. But the key of the success of Hermann Joha is not action, it is high octane original action sequences cleverly integrated inside solid scripts, with great acting talents, experimented directors, superb locations and great music.

13 years later Alarm for Cobra 11 is the most successful series of Germany's private TV, almost an institution. And last thursday, RTL viewers were blessed with the opening 90-minute special of season 26, Das Ende der Welt, also episode 200 of Cobra. Erdogan Atalay, the German Bruce Willis, is still on duty as Semir Gerkhan (Atalay is in the show almost since the beginning) and Tom Beck is Ben Jäger, Gerkhan's partner since 2008.

We'll not spoil the (excellent) story for our readers outside Germany but note that the TV movie opens with an elegant tribute to Moonraker and Live and let die. Paul Frielinghaus (from public TV's iconic "Krimi" Ein Fall für Zweï), famous German comedian Oliver Pocher - hilarious as a cross between Leo Getz of Lethal Weapon and The Lone Gunmen of X Files, presenter Collien Fernandes and Juliette Menke (from hit soap Alles was zählt) guest star.

Das Ende der Welt, preceded on August 31 by a preview in a drive-in cinema of Cologne with more than 1000 guests (1), captivated 5.14 Million viewers. That's more than House M.D. two days earlier, a solace in a country where viewers tend to favor US shows, and the highest number since March 2007 for Cobra 11. The rating of 23.5% in the target group (age 14-49) of the show is the highest since April 2005.

And, like it was not enough, Lasko - Die Faust Gottes is nominated in the category "Best Series" for the most prestigious Deutscher Filmpreis.

See also:

http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2009/07/back-to-basics.html
http://www.quotenmeter.de/cms/?p1=n&p2=37076&p3 (In German)
http://www.dwdl.de/story/22449/rtl_cobra_11_stark_nachmittag_immer_strker/ (In German)
http://www.actionconcept.com/site/

(1) Among them the stars of episode 200, former Cobra 11 stars such as René Steinke and Mark Keller, and many others like Sven Martinek (Der Clown, another milestone action concept production) or Wolke Hegenbarth, the star of Mein Leben & Ich - the cult German adaptation of My So-Called Life.

(C) Thierry Attard

DOCTOR WHO SERIES 4 FRENCH DVD RELEASE SUSPENDED

France has very complicated relationships with Doctor Who, relationships which would deserve a whole behind-the-scenes book.

French viewers know only a ridiculously little portion of the classic series: some Tom Baker episodes dubbed and shown on sunday in an early morning kid show at the end of the 1980s. "Doctor, who?" almost became a recurring joke in France, one of the countries in the world which has not its local Sesame Street version, until the 2005 revival helmed by Russell T. Davies.

France 4, owned by the France Télévisions public service, a channel of the then fledging digital terrestrial free offer, began to show the new Doctor Who with a dubbing made in French-speaking Belgium (for financial motives). The dubbing of the show would deserve a whole chapter in the book about the relationships between France and Who. Suffice to say that after two heavily criticized years of the French dubbing, your humble servant came aboard on series 3 as consultant. Circumstances unfortunately made that I didn't work on series 4 (http://www.doctor-who.fr/d_itw_attard.php - In French).

In this Internet era, the notoriety of Doctor Who is since series 1 quite established in France. And the wonderful folks of Beans On Toast (http://www.doctor-who.fr/), the first French-speaking information source about the Whoniverse, widely contribute to the phenomenon. In the past they gave news about the delays of the dubbing of series 4 caused by a strike of Belgian dubbing artists and, most of all, delivered a complete and exclusive coverage about a major issue around the release in France of series 3 on DVD: the absence of a track with the original English-speaking dialogues.

Now Beans on Toast announces that France Télévisions Distribution, the subsidiary of France Télévisions holding the rights of the show on DVD from series 1 to 4, has suspended the release of series 4 DVD box in France. The impact of the French-only series 3 DVD release on their sales is without any doubt a parameter in the evaluation of the situation by FTD. Beans on Toast recall that the sale number of the first three series went from 700 to a little more than 1000 copies.

The economic argument would be fully acceptable (especially in these times of recession) if the treatment of Doctor Who by France Télévisions Distribution was not already so minimalist: no extra features, which would be understandable regarding the ratio between costs engaged and the market segment targeted, but - maybe more embarassing - no special episodes. Worse: DVDs of Torchwood, the spin-off of Doctor Who, are published in France by a great company called Koba Films Vidéo (whose DVDs are often reviewed on the French version of this blog), which manages to get extra features for a reasonable sale price regarding the quality of their DVD boxes. Actually DVD critics, specialist and fans even considered Torchwood series 1 DVD box set as a magnificent answer to the policy of France Télévisions with Doctor Who.

FTD has not taken any final decision about series 4, explains Beans on Toast. Perhaps they're testing how much fans really want to buy it before releasing a product whose future at France Télévisions looks rather bleak at the moment. French digital terrestrial private channel NRJ12 has shown a big interest for the series distributed by BBC Worldwide this year, buying shows like Hustle (previously on M6) and Primeval. Many French fans wish that Koba Films Vidéo buys the DVD rights of the next series of Doctor Who. Koba has a very good reputation and many BBC entries in its catalog.

Beans On Toast prepares an action to show France Télévisions the importance of French-speaking fandom of Doctor Who. We'll follow this story with the highest interest.

CONGRATS TO DEADLINE.COM

Here comes the brand new Deadline Hollywood Daily, now Deadline.com, with a classy new look. Congratulations to Nikki Finke.

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/

« FRIDAY AM: Successful transition! Deadline Hollywood's new look is now live on the newly branded site Deadline.com which will become the home page for all the coverage of the business of entertainment and media. The old url of DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com will automatically send you to the new home page. Most, but not all, of the site's new features are ready, and those that aren't will be coming soon (some as quickly as later today). Immediate editorial plans include a Deadline New York executive editor (followed by correspondents in other cities around the world), a streamlined version of Deadline Hollywood for Blackberry and iPhone, Premium content, and other cool stuff. Enjoy! » (http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/dhd-advisory-new-look-about-to-debut/)

See also: http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2009/06/mmc-acquires-deadline-hollywood-daily.html