2024-07-03 17:34:01
AThere is no company or logo on the door sign, only the name and three words on the green primer box that provide information about the type of company we are dealing with here. Nico Hofmann – Film, Consulting & Development. Hofmann, 64, is one of the most important German film producers and is the director and producer for films such as “The Sandman”, “The Escape”, “Dresden” and many more. He supported a number of filmmakers and producers such as Christian Schwochow, Philipp Kadelbach and Sascha Schwingel, the last of whom took over a commission in Ufa from him.
Hofmann is available until autumn 2023 Ufa-CEO, then president of the manufacturing company belonging to the Bertelsmann Group for six months. But he didn’t want to be the “nice greetings uncle” – and started his own business. He has been moving to his office near the Dutch quarter in Potsdam for some time. Once you pass the house and turn right you go to Babelsberg.
Hofmann’s office, not too large but cheerfully open, was on the first floor; Many gifts from the film industry that Hofmann has received over the years have been moved from the Ufa offices. They represent the past and at the same time are a link to the present and the future. It’s not primarily about winning awards, but it’s definitely about setting standards again, globally. But not to follow the paths of the old television and film world, but to find new ways.
Before the interview, two young filmmakers visited with Hofmann to talk about a project. Now you can take time for things like this, he said later, whereas you might have only had a quarter of an hour. Where. The schedules are pretty full again. After that Baden-Württemberg Film Academywhere he has been teaching young talents as a professor for 30 years. Hofmann says: “Working with my students in Ludwigsburg still inspires me.
In between also to prepare Nibelungen Festival in Worms, where he is the director. We had Munich Film Festivalwhere he worked together with Jan Mojto, the head of the Beta movie, would like to present our first joint projects. Like Hofmann, Mojto is a big name in the business; Beta produces, licenses and distributes films and series;
It seems business as usual, in a way, the film world keeps on turning. However, it would not be accurate to say that Hofmann continued where he left off. He clearly doesn’t want to do more of the same thing. That would be a dead end from a creative and economic perspective. “Popular event television, like the one I did 20 years ago, would no longer appeal to viewers in this form today,” says Hofmann.
“Editing applications”
But what does that mean? Hofmann says: “We had to redo the things we were filming. “Certain initiatives in implementation are important. Because viewers have changed and with them their viewing habits and how they consume content.” A new generation of viewers are expecting the facts of their lives. The boards that have been drilled here are thick. Topics such as the search for personal identity, sexual experimentation, surrender, the struggle against social norms and social injustice, as well as political activism and war.
These themes will be implemented mainly by young artists with new ideas and new ideas. One thing led to another, in a nutshell: “This innovative approach with new ideas is changing our industry. We are experiencing a change in perspective. On the outside it’s a crime thriller, on the inside it’s a “great psychological family thriller”.
And your own projects? In front of Hofmann is a table with several pages of possible projects. Three of which will be presented in Munich nine days after the day in Potsdam. They are all film adaptations of novels that are also about modern history. The process itself is not new; But it will depend on the implementation whether the application meets this requirement to enable different views. And that depends on those who implement it. And of those who make it possible, in addition to Hofmann and Mojto, there is also Jan Wünschmann, managing director and producer of Intaglio Films (Beta Film / ZDFStudios), who produced the series “The Swarm” based on novel by Frank Schätzing.
Nico Hofmann (l.) with Jan Mojto from Beta Film
Source: © Marcus Hoehn
The first package includes a six-part film adaptation of Tilmann Lahme’s novel “The Manns – The Story of a Family” from 2017. The stories are told from the perspective of the children Erika and Klaus, who are described here as an avant- garde and radical sibling duo who want to make a statement against the reactionary society of their time. The focus should be on “meaning life in an ever-changing world”.
Two books by journalist and author Maxim Leo are also at the top of Hofmann’s list. “Where We Are Home,” Leo’s 2021 family story, and “We’ll Be Young,” a novel about the renewal of nature published in March. Here and there, generation and identity conflicts run through the story – with the question of how a society deals with them.
Thomas Hüetlin’s novel “You only live your life once” will be published in September, which will also be made into a six-part film. Here the journalist will tell the story of Marlene Dietrich and her romance with Erich Maria Remarque, which began in the fall of 1937 at the Venice Film Festival. In this material, too, a mythical figure represents the pursuit of freedom and self-determination.
Which brings us back to Nico Hofmann. If it doesn’t change, he said in his office, it will be “the fall.” Self-transformation as an internal need. But then again the importance of his work so far. Because all these stories written by the best writers are also close to Hofmann. From the beginning of his career, he has been obsessed with German history and the Nazi era; In the same year, Ufa holding Teamworx, founded by Hofmann, was transferred to Ufa Fiction with other subsidiaries.
“What we’re doing here is similar to the beginnings of Teamworx,” says Hofmann, who has thought a lot about his decision to leave the corporate structures and work independently again. “We have a small team from which all projects arise. For me, this system also means inner freedom in which, at least at this time, it is not necessary to get money immediately with all the projects. ”Press, if it is there, is creative press, at least in this early period. Nico Hofmann says: “I saw myself in the process of change, and he knew it was right.”
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