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With Netflix into the world: Matthias Schweighöfer in the prequel for "Army of the Dead"
Photo: Stanislav Honzík / Netflix
Sasha Bühler is American with German ancestry.
She lived in Germany for 30 years and moved to London in 2019 for her new job at Netflix.
An international career that fits her job there: Bühler is Director of International Film, she develops projects for the streaming company in German-speaking countries as well as in France, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
Not only is Bühler's job new, the whole department has created Netflix.
Because the group is only growing slowly in the saturated US market, but all the more rapidly in Europe and other regions.
That is why local productions should increasingly attract new subscribers.
And because Netflix has customers in 190 countries, they can also become international hits, as the German Netflix series "Dark" and "How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)" have shown.
To person
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Sasha Bühler
has been Director International Films for the German-speaking and Nordic countries, France and Eastern Europe at Netflix since December 2019.
The American was previously responsible for international co-productions at the Constantin Film production company in Germany.
These successes should now bring Netflix locally produced films.
Sasha Bühler says in the video conversation: "I want to support German talents in front of and behind the camera in finding a world stage."
That sounds good, and you definitely take away from her the passion for the three projects she is currently developing.
But behind it are solid economic interests.
Matthias Schweighöfer is one of those who will soon be at least on the Netflix world stage.
Because everything has to go quickly at Netflix, he is currently filming a prequel for a zombie thriller for the company that has not yet been released.
It's called "Army of the Dead" and won't be released until 2021.
It is the unofficial sequel to "Dawn of the Dead", a zombie film from 2004. Directed again, as then, by the American Zack Synder.
In "Army of the Dead" Schweighöfer plays a German - the name of his character is Ludwig Dieter - and was apparently so well received during the filming in the USA that Netflix decided to shake a previous story up its sleeve in which his character was in The focus.
Schweighöfer not only plays the leading role in the still untitled prequel, he also directs.
Filming has been taking place in Germany, Austria and Prague since mid-October.
Netflix also has high hopes for the horror thriller "Blood Red Sky", which the German Peter Thorwarth wrote and directed.
Thorwarth made a name for himself in the nineties with the stoner comedy "Bang Boom Bang". Nobody wanted to produce his sharp genre change "Blood Red Sky" (it's about a plane hijacking and vampires) for ten years.
Sasha Bühler sees the material as ideal material for horror fans all over the world.
The shooting has already been completed.
Finally, "Munich" is a film adaptation of Robert Harris' bestseller.
The espionage story takes place during the Munich Conference of 1938, as a result of which Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland.
The director is the German Christian Schwochow, the cast includes Jeremy Irons, Jannis Niewöhner, Sandra Hüller, Liv Lisa Fries and August Diehl.
Martin Wuttke plays Adolf Hitler, as he did a few years ago in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds".
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With Netflix into the world: Director Christian Schwochow (r.) Filming "Munich"
Photo: Frédérik Batier / Netflix
All productions are shot with international cast and in multiple languages because Netflix customers want it that way.
With the success of streaming services, the globalization of TV entertainment has set in, the speed of which surprised Sasha Bühler: "Five years ago that would have been unthinkable."
But the data clearly showed: "We see that more people watch programs with subtitles or synchronized than in the original. That means that local content is watched significantly more worldwide. This includes German Netflix productions in particular."
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether a US audience can really do something with Matthias Schweighöfer.
Bühler describes the projects in her department as experiments: "Of course, we cannot know whether this type of production will work, we want to try a lot here."
The other question is whether films that are supposed to play on the international stage really increase the variety of cinematic forms of expression.
So far, at least one has the impression that Netflix delivers more of the same: There is really no shortage of vampire and zombie thrillers.
But the group has to keep its subscribers in line and deliver materials that they get.
And he has to win new ones in order to continue growing in the overcrowded streaming market.
With all the speed with which digitization is changing the production and distribution of films as well as the viewing habits of the public - one thing has remained the same since the beginning of film culture 120 years ago: business comes first, then art.
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