Diane Kruger (“Inglorious Basterds,” “National Treasure”) is reconnecting with Fatih Akin for a tv series where Kruger will play iconic actress Marlene Dietrich.
Currently under the working title “Marlene,” the five-part biopic series is produced by Akin’s Bombero International, together with German mini-major UFA Fiction. The show is being adapted by Akin and is based on the biography of Dietrich, “Meine Mutter Marlene (My Mother Marlene),” written by Dietrich’s daughter, Maria Riva.
Kruger and Akin previously worked together on Akin’s “In the Fade,” where Kruger starred as a woman who takes revenge for the racially-motivated killing of her ethnic Turkish husband. The film premiered at Cannes in 2017, where Kruger won the best actress prize.
“With Fatih’s talent and ability to see inside the soul of every person, I’m certain that this won’t just be a series about the icon and world star Marlene Dietrich but most of all an intimate portrait of this singular woman living through an extraordinary epoch,” Kruger said in a statement. “I can’t wait to get in front of Fatih’s camera again and together put Marlene Dietrich back in the spotlight.”
Akin, commenting on the great challenge presented by capturing the essence of a larger than life figure, returned the praise. “No one could be better cast that her. Marlene wasn’t just a cinema icon, but a woman in exile, a German migrant to America, a resistance fighter and much more,” Akin said. “She was also a UFA artist, which is why I’m even happier that the series has found its home there.”
We’re glad that the team devoted to the show is so confident in their abilities because there is no shortage of challenges in portraying Dietrich or her legacy. As Nico Hofmann and Sebastian Werninger, both producers on the series, noted, “Marlene Dietrich is an icon of our time: in her open attitude towards sexuality, her clear [anti-war] stance in Nazi Germany, her cosmopolitan nature and in her embrace of diversity…Marlene Dietrich is [both] myth and legacy, one of the greatest German biographies that has never been told in its true complexity.”
A projected premiere date has not yet been announced but this is definitely one to watch out for.
