HBO Europe partners with Germany’s TNT Serie for cyber-crime drama Hackerville

HBO Europe is delving into the world of cyber-crime in its first international co-production Hackerville, an original six-part thriller about a network of hackers and the investigators tasked with tracking them down.  An HBO Europe original production, co-produced with TNT Serie, Hackerville was created by Ralph Martin and Joerg Winger from UFA Fiction and will be produced by Cristian Mungiu and Tudor Reu through Mobra Films. 

Directors will be Igor Cobileanski (Umbre) and Anca Miruna Lazarescu (That Trip We Took with Dad).  The writing team is Laurențiu Rusescu, Daniel Sandu, Ralph Martin and Steve Bailie.

When a hacking attack on a major German bank is traced to a local network in Romania, BKA Cyber Crime expert Lisa Metz is despatched from Frankfurt to Timisoara, the city of her birth, to work with local investigators led by Romanian cop Adam Sandor.  As she rides the rollercoaster of life in contemporary Romania, Lisa is forced to confront uncomfortable secrets from her family’s past. Meanwhile, Sandor’s own investigation is turned upside down by Lisa’s arrival on his patch.  When Lisa and Sandor are led to a genius hacker code-named Dark Mole, the three are thrust together in an emotional triangle that starts with extreme distrust but ends with mutual dependence.

Hackerville is a fast-paced investigative thriller with a big heart, action and humour that takes place on the new front line of international affairs – where local and global meet in surprising ways, and where cyber “games” have far-reaching, real world consequences. 

Executive Producers amongst others are Joerg Winger (Deutschland 83/86) for UFA Fiction and Johnathan Young (Wataha) for HBO Europe. 

Alina David and Silvia Popescu are producers for HBO Europe.

Hackerville will shoot in 4k on location in Timisoara, Bucharest and Frankfurt from spring 2018, for an expected fall 2018 premiere on HBO Europe and TNT Serie. 

HBO Europe will premiere Hackerville across its territories in Central Europe, Scandinavia and Spain. TNT Serie will premiere the series in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Turner International will handle all sales outside the HBO Europe and US territory.

Antony Root, EVP, Original Programming and Production for HBO Europe. said: “Hackerville is a fast, fresh and highly entertaining story set on the front-line of one of the biggest modern day threats and with huge resonance internationally.  We’re excited to partner for the first time with TNT Serie, our sister company within the Time Warner group, and with Joerg Winger at UFA Fiction and Mobra Films to bring the series and its contrasting worlds to life.”

Hannes Heyelmann, SVP, Turner International Original Programming Strategy, added: “We are proud that TNT Serie’s first international co-production is with HBO Europe. In addition to our hyper local originals like 4 Blocks, we would like to broaden our production scope and also invest in series that cross borders. This co-production is also indicative of the ramping up of Turner’s investments in general entertainment programming and our ambitions in producing content that is relevant for both the local and international markets.”

Editor’s notes

HBO Europe Original Programming
HBO Europe has been producing original drama in Central Europe since 2011.  Hackerville follows the award-winning and critically-acclaimed series Wasteland (Czech Republic), The Pack (Poland), Shadows (Romania), Burning Bush (Czech Republic) and Golden Life (Hungary).  Upcoming HBO Europe originals include Blinded by the Lights (Poland) and Lukas Moodysson’s Gösta (Sweden).

HBO Europe
In Europe HBO offers programming to subscribers through three services covering seventeen countries:
In Scandinavia HBO Nordic has established itself as The Home of Series, offering a premium Subscription Video on Demand Service directly to consumers and through operator partners in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
In Spain HBO España is available to subscribers as an SVOD service and through its exclusive partnership with Vodafone Spain, allowing Vodafone customers in Spain to access the streaming service via Vodafone TV or on their computers, smart phones and tablets. 
In Central Europe HBO is available to subscribers in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

About TNT Serie
TNT Serie is the channel for gripping stories and big emotions, with a focus on drama, action and crime series as well as classics. Alongside highlights such as The Son, Game of Thrones and The Flash, the lineup also features TNT Originals produced by TNT US, such as The Last Ship and Good Behavior, as well as German original productions such as the Grimme Award-winning mystery series The Valley and 4 Blocks. TNT Serie also gives airtime to glamorous award ceremonies. All programs are broadcast without commercial breaks and, if available, in German and English using two-channel audio. TNT Serie is part of the successful TNT broadcasting family and reaches more than seven million households in the German-speaking countries.

UFA FICTION
UFA FICTION unites all of UFA’s production activities in the fields of TV series, TV movies, high end drama and feature films. Its outstanding high-quality TV movies and mini-series have been awarded numerous national and international accolades, among them two International Emmy Awards. With high end drama productions like Generation War, Naked Among Wolves and Ku’damm 56, event series like Deutschland83 and Charité, successful long running series such as SOKO München, SOKO Leipzig and Bella Block, as well as theatrical feature films like The Physician and I‘m Off Then, UFA FICTION is one of Europe‘s market leaders. Over the past few years the company has increasingly developed high end dramas for the international market; among the current developments and productions are Deutschland86, Michael Haneke´s first series project Kelvin´s Book, Munich (co-production with Euston Films) based on Robert Harris bestselling novel, Siegfried & Roy and Hackerville. UFA FICTION is part of the UFA Group, a subsidiary of Fremantle Media, the production and distribution arm of RTL Group and part of Bertelsmann Media Group.

Mobra Films
Mobra Films is a Romanian production company established in 2003. It produced, among others, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, “Beyond the Hills” and “Graduation", features awarded at Cannes Film Festival.