FremantleMedia, one of the leading creators of television entertainment brands worldwide, is teaming up with veteran writer and producer, Marshall Herskovitz, for a television drama series inspired by Andrew Nagorski’s book Hitlerland.
The book, released earlier this year, provides accounts from American diplomats and correspondents in Berlin during the 1920s and 30s who knew Hitler before his rise to power.
“… Some of the Americans in Weimar and then Hitler’s Germany were merely casual observers, others deliberately blind; a few were Nazi apologists. But most slowly began to understand the horror of what was unfolding, even when they found it difficult to grasp the breadth of the catastrophe,” reads the book’s synopsis on Amazon.com.
“Observing Hitler and his movement up close, the most perceptive of these Americans helped their reluctant countrymen begin to understand the nature of Nazi Germany as it ruthlessly eliminated political opponents, instilled hatred of Jews and anyone deemed a member of an inferior race, and readied its military and its people for a war for global domination. They helped prepare Americans for the years of struggle ahead,” it continues.
Commenting on the development, Herskovitz said, “Berlin during the 1920s and ’30s was so alive, so filled with promise, so incredibly modern — even today, much of what we think of as new or avant-garde was created then.”
“And it’s equally important — in light of the dark forces in our world today — to understand how a group like the Nazis ever came to power,” he added.
According to Deadline.com, the narrative “will be woven into a fictional tapestry of political intrigue, pursuit of power, and personal danger” to create a fascinating new series, the title of which has yet to be announced.
While FremantleMedia made its money with reality television such as American Idol and The X Factor, according to Collider.com, it seems that the “money will be put to good use funding a new project.”