With its mini-series “The Swarm”, ZDF dared to film a million-dollar literary film.
But it is too shallow for many viewers.
Mainz – With the sci-fi thriller "Der Schwarm" Frank Schätzing (65) landed an international bestseller in 2004, which quickly aroused desire even in Hollywood.
But the material was long considered unfilmable.
Now ZDF has ventured into an international co-production of the work and released a production budget of a whopping 40 million euros.
But some viewers think that they would have been better invested elsewhere.
"The Swarm" receives bad reviews – the ZDF series is too shallow for many viewers
Things are getting tight for mankind: a mysterious threat from the sea threatens to wipe the world's population off the face of the earth.
The only hope: Scientists who pursue an explanation that is as insane as it is revolutionary.
The material of Frank Schätzing's "The Swarm" is unique and in parts highly complex - a promising mixture, which, however, presented the series creators with one or the other hurdle.
Nevertheless, one was confident.
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"The Swarm" is sometimes dramatic, sometimes romantic - a mixture that is more reminiscent of the shallow Rosamunde Pilcher series, especially for fans of the book (photomontage)
© Staudinger + Franke/Fabio Lovino/ZDF
But with the end result, fans in particular who know the novel are not at all satisfied.
"After 6 episodes of 'The Swarm' I unfortunately have to say: Missed topic, set 6," judges a viewer on Twitter.
The series lacks suspense, but it focuses on all the more unimportant love or family stories.
“How can you mess up such a wonderful book like that?
It's a shame, I was looking forward to it," criticized a reader of the original.
Another tweet complains that the ZDF series seems "put together" and only spreads "drowsy boredom".
"The Swarm" almost ended up in Hollywood
After the phenomenal success of Frank Schätzing's novel, the dream factory was also eager to film “The Swarm”.
There were already talks with Hollywood in 2006, and at that time none other than Ridley Scott (“Alien”, “Blade Runner”, “Gladiator”) was traded as the director.
But this and later projects, such as a film adaptation with acting icon Uma Thurman ("Pulp Fiction", "Kill Bill") failed.
Author Frank Schätzing is not convinced either – “The Swarm” series is too “touchy and talkative”
In an interview with
Die Zeit,
“Der Schwarm” creator Frank Schätzing took a clear stance against the ZDF film adaptation: “It pilchers more than it raves,” the Cologne author grumbled about the comparatively shallow implementation of his story.
He sees the series as "touching and talkative relationship box TV," according to the clear verdict of the 65-year-old.
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However, this does not detract from the success of the eight-part ZDF series: “Der Schwarm” broke all records even before it started broadcasting.
Sources used:
"Der Schwarm" (ZDF; Episodes 1 - 6), twitter.com, zeit.de, zdf.de
List of rubrics: © Staudinger + Franke/Fabio Lovino/ZDF