EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate Television has landed its first Israeli drama series.
The U.S. major is teaming with Israel’s Yes and Gil Formats on a spy drama based on the hunt for Doctor Josef Mengele starring Dark’s Oliver Masucci.
The as-yet-untitled show comes from vet Israeli producer Assaf Gil, who is creating with Moshe Zonder (Tehran) and Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz (The Girl from Oslo). Lionsgate is co-producing and distributing.
Masucci, who played Ulrich Nielsen in Netflix smash Dark and portrayed Adolf Hitler in 2015’s Look Who’s Back, stars as Uri, the alpha male of a kibbutz and one of the pioneers of the state of Israel. He and his wife Anna (Ania Bukstein) decide to leave behind their traumatic past as Holocaust survivors and start a new life in Israel. They keep quiet about their past for 25 years, until the day when Israeli spy agency Mossad forces Uri to return to Germany and infiltrate a cell of SS veterans with the aim of locating the Nazi war criminal, Mengele, who managed to escape at the end of World War II.
Nicknamed the ‘Angel of Death’, Mengele became known for performing deadly experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. He eluded capture in spite of extradition requests by the West German government and operations by Mossad, and died in 1979 under a false name.
Gil’s indie Gil Formats, which produces Israeli versions of Married at First Sight and MasterChef, is making the series. Naya Bienstock, Ido Tako, Rotem Keinan and Sarit Vino-Elad also star. Gabriel Bibliowicz (Night Therapy) serves as director, and Zonder and Weiss-Berkowitz are the scriptwriters. Adam Berkowitz of Lenore Entertainment Group is an EP on the series.