The film was an international success when it appeared nearly 30 years ago. Now "Das Boot" is being relaunched as an eight-part series on pay TV network Sky, this time with strong roles for women.
Image: picture-alliance/Sky/N. Konietzny
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The crew of U-96 emerged from their crippled U-boat in the harbor of La Rochelle, having survived a pitched sea battle, only to come under immediate attack from allied aircraft. Most of the crew members who had survived to make it back to land then met their deaths under the sky. U-96, the submarine that had brought them this far, was sent to the bottom by an allied bomb.
That's how the 1981 classic anti-war film Das Boot ended.
Now the series under the same name from paycaster Sky and production company Bavarian Fiction refloats the story and pushes it out to sea once more.
Nine months have passed since U-96 disappeared beneath the waves for the last time. In the U-boat harbor at La Rochelle, the crew of U-612 is preparing for its maiden voyage.
The war is no longer going so well for Germany, and the Allies have recently cracked the Enigma Enigma code — making life even more dangerous for Germany's U-boat crews. Sky's blurb tells us that during the mission, the crew's skill, loyalty, and comradeship will all be put to the test. Meanwhile another story unfolds on land, as we follow a young woman playing a dangerous game between the Gestapo and the Resistance.
Director Andreas Prochaska says the Sky series has strong female partsImage: picture-alliance/Sky/N. Konietzny
Strong female characters and international cast for milestone relaunch
"Das Boot is a milestone among anti-war films: It stands for authenticity, suspense, drama, emotion and action," says director Andreas Prochaska. "But the series goes a step further than the film did, by combining the claustrophobic atmosphere on board the submarine with a second storyline in the orbit of the Resistance — which gives a chance to bring in strong female characters."
The story is told in eight parts, with Rick Okon in the role of Klaus Hoffmann, August Wittgenstein as First Officer Karl Tennstedt and Vicky Krieps as Simone Strasser, a translator who works for the Gestapo. In addition, big names like Robert Stadlober (who recently starred as Kurt Weill in Brecht's Threepenny Film), Belgian actor Jonathan Zaccai (Robin Hood), and American Lizzy Caplan (The Interview, Freaks and Geeks) complement the cast.
Image: picture-alliance/Sky/N. Konietzny
For Sky Deutschland, Das Boot is already a money-spinner: Rupert Murdoch's Sky network has already sold the series in more than 100 countries, and has been the subject of much hype, thanks to an extravagant marketing campaign.
The series cost €26.5 million ($30 million) to make. In 1981, the original film, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, had a budget of 25 million Deutschmark — huge at the time. Taking inflation into account, it equates to about the same figure in euros.
The original film was nominated for six Oscars and a Golden Globe. It will be interesting to see whether this reboot does the original justice.
11 films by German director Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen, the director of "Troy," "Air Force One" and "Das Boot," turns 80. Here's a look back at 11 of the most important films of this German filmmaker who conquered Hollywood.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images/Binde
Overwhelming success: 'Das Boot'
Wolfgang Petersen's war epic "Das Boot" was a spectacular movie success in the 1980s — first in Germany, and then in the US. Moviegoers got a strong adrenaline rush through this claustrophobic German submarine mission set in 1941 in the Atlantic Ocean. The film was nominated for six Oscars.
Image: picture-alliance/KPA
Germany's most popular crime TV series
Among Wolfgang Petersen's work for the cult German crime series "Tatort," one episode from 1977 was so popular that it was later released in theaters as "For Your Love Only." It not only boosted his career; it was also a springboard for the then 16-year-old actress Nastassja Kinski, who played a student having an affair with her professor. The film still regularly airs on German television.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/NDR
Breaking taboos on homosexuality
Petersen's next film, "The Consequence" (1977) had many detractors in Germany. It described a gay couple's relationship — a taboo topic back then. Scenes were cut out in the TV version and the Bavarian local TV broadcaster refused to show the film at all — but it nevertheless made its way to movie screens, and received different awards.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Hollywood in Germany: 'NeverEnding Story'
Petersen directed the multi-million dollar epic fantasy film "The NeverEnding Story" in 1984. Based on the novel by German author Michael Ende, this blockbuster was filmed in West Germany. Hollywood was awaiting the ambitious filmmaker.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Farewell to Germany: 'Enemy Mine'
The 1985 science fiction film "Enemy Mine" was partly shot in Germany, but was mainly Hollywood-financed, and US actors Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. played the lead roles. For Petersen, it was to be the last film he would shoot in Germany for a long time.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/IFTN
'In the Line of Fire' with Clint Eastwood
The thriller "Shattered" (1991) was actually Petersen's first US film, but it was the 1993 action film "In the Line of Fire" (1993) that marked the real breakthrough for the German director. The film about an obsessed, ageing former CIA agent (Clint Eastwood) was a box office success.
In 1995, movie theaters released Petersen's "Outbreak," a captivating medical disaster thriller about the outbreak of a deadly new fictional virus in a small African village that then spreads to California. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland, it was a box office success.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/United Archives
A truly American film: 'Air Force One'
"Air Force One" (1997) was another box office hit. The German director convinced the crowds with a suspenseful action plot involving the kidnapping of the airplane carrying the US president (Harrison Ford) — who defeats the terrorists in the end. The film was criticized in Europe for its heavy US patriotism.
The disaster drama "The Perfect Storm" (2000), based on a non-fiction bestseller by the same name, tells the story of a commercial fishing boat lost at sea. The film featured George Clooney in the role of weather-beaten Captain Billy Tyne.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Warner
Long and expensive: 'Troy'
Production costs for "The Perfect Storm" were high, but they were topped for "Troy," which had a $175-million budget. Not everyone was convinced by the 162-minute tale of the Trojan War starring Brad Pitt. Three years after the premiere, Petersen created a director's cut, adding an extra 40 minutes to his lengthy epic.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Shipwreck with 'Poseidon'
Petersen's last Hollywood movie, the 2006 disaster film "Poseidon," was a box office flop. The director finally returned to Germany for his following project, a crime comedy about four urban professionals who plan to rob a bank. "Four Against the Bank" was released in 2016. (This picture gallery has been updated from 2016).
