Odar says there were two reasons why they opted to use this new technology, which has been used previously on shows such as Disney+'s The Mandalorian. Friese wouldnt drop any spoilers not even saying how Season 3 will differ from the first two cycles but gave a few clues as to the faces viewers can expect. In the first season, he had it bandaged up, and in Season 2, he has an blackened eyepatch fitted into one lens of his glasses. She was last seen stealing a time machine, traveling to the past to taunt her old lover, and then taking off on her own. We put a lot of effort into getting things right. The former show, after all, spawned a worldwide cult following of fans eager to untangle Dark's knots, and the idea for 1899 first sprung up after Dark's first season. So basically now everything thats left just falls into Season 3.. When we arrive at the start of Season 3, the big twist of Season 1 that main character Jonas Kahnwald is actually the son of Mikkel, the young boy who mysteriously vanished from 2019 and somehow ended up 33 years in the past seem quaint by comparison. To create an illusion that the virtual space is a three-dimensional space its fascinating. Then one day, I told myself: Lets forget about what theyre saying and listen to how theyre saying it. Speaking how we think French people would speak. Well, then how ambitious are you with this series? Chris Emil Janssen/Action Press/Shutterstock, Bo and I met in film school and since Day One, we were convinced that it was possible to tell local stories coming out of Germany that could hit an audience anywhere, Friese said. By the end of the second season, the timeline of Dark has become more of a time-web, with certain characters now able to hop back and forth through time without adhering to the 33-years rule, while other characters discover that certain people they meet are actually their own future selves. Jantje Friese: We wanted to introduce the parallel world in the second season. Then its really a lot of bouncing back and forth between the two of us at the beginning, throwing in random ideas in the beginning and trying to figure out what ideas actually stick. Still, there are enough locations that do exist, exteriors that even when dismantled were the site of many memories for those who worked on Dark. Its understandable that even Odar didnt want to give up the show right away. That, for us, is a metaphor. Jantje Friese - IMDb It was a really awkward feeling that day, Odar said. I mean, we're always mixing genres, but the DNA is not per se a horror show.". ", The poster for 1899 (below) shows a ship perched on the edge of a triangle in the middle of the ocean, leading some fans to speculate that the mysterious Bermuda Triangle myth could play a part in the story. But usually, its the theme that starts the whole process. We wanted to make sure we got there. Ling Yi has a digital glitch in her arm, so clearly its something digital [at work on the ship]. People write stories about the relationships between Aleksander and Regina, and stuff like that. ", "There is a lot in the DNA that is kind of close to Dark in terms of the puzzle and needing an engaged active audience," Friese says. bo Odar:Another good example is the word ambitious. The ending, knowing where youre going is one thing, but then finding the ways to get there is really a whole different challenge, said Friese. Jantje Friese (born 1977) is a German film producer and screenwriter known for co-creating the Netflix series Dark (2017-2020) and 1899 (2022) with her creative and romantic partner Baran bo Odar. We have to do this? But then they loved it, too. Per the official synopsis, what they will find on board will turn their passage to the promised land into a horrifying nightmare. First time filming in new cutting edge LED-Volume at Babelsberg Studios. That [story] was already during development for Season 1. Thats why theres a viewer learning curve at the beginning, trying to tell one German person apart from another. Jantje Friese: 1899 is special because it's very topical - in 1899 people had a lot of racial prejudice, class prejudice, gender prejudice and so on. You were really, like, lovesick after filming was done. Theres a picture with three worlds in it. I makes it very difficult.. The following interview discusses Season 3 of the Netflix . All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. We spoke to Dark co-creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese about saying farewell to the series, the spiritual and mythological influences they crammed into the third season's eight episodes, and how in the world they managed to keep everything straight. "And we wanted to do a multilingual show that you treat all these different cultures with respect, and you don't just do it in English, or whatever language, and just pretend that they're all from these different cultures. So you have 999. Then you have the world of origin in the middle. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day, Inside the business of TV with breaking news, expert analysis and showrunner interviews. And they love that show! Did the actors all know about the ending? In terms of diversity, thats actually really one big thing that when you have people crossbreeding through different timelines you really cant just throw in something because then otherwise you would kind of know whos is whose child, said Friese. And every dialogue portion had a script note. You can actually do something good by not being there so someone else can be lucky and happy. Were going to see a bit more about grown Ulrich, she said. So, a very simple example: In French, you can address someone in a formal or an informal way. So theres always a tone in the end, which all mean something different. We planted it everywhere, but no one saw it yet. Im still not sure about the percentage, but its probably 10 percent [of the mysteries] we are not goiong to answer just for the fun of it, but they will be smaller. Berlin, Germany - May 3rd, 2021 -- Today Netflix and DARK WAYS, the newly set-up production company helmed by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, announced the start of production for their highly anticipated new Netflix original mystery-series 1899. So for all the fans out there: Sorry, there wont be any characters fromDarksuddenly appearing on the ship. No, we just forget them immediately. [Note: The following interview discusses Season 3 of the Netflix series Dark.]. 1899s full eight-episode first season streams on Netflix starting Thursday. From the creators of Dark, the mystery-thriller will melt your mind. Its not the kind of story that can be reworked and improvised on the fly with each passing group of episodes, as Friese can attest. And what I just found so interesting about that, or what became even more clear to me, is that through language youre actually expressing culture. Its nice that this is built upon something that we created and someone else will come up with a new idea and so on. Netflix Unveils Latest Trailer For 'Dark' Creators' '1899' - Deadline Its been quite a process getting to here. This is mine! Dark- Netflix original series | Page 18 | AVS Forum In terms of how long 1899 might run, Friese says the pair are trying their best to make it a multi-season show, but notes that "it depends on the viewers", as well as Netflix. Dark: Here Are 8 Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed Amidst All Those Time Travel Shenanigans Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. It's all rooted in one core idea. In the end, the whole language thing was much easier than we all thought it would be in the beginning. It was something to give to the actors. But where they're going isn't to a different time period; she clicks a device and suggests they're going to a different world. Creators Baran bo Odar Jantje Friese Stars Emily Beecham Aneurin Barnard Andreas Pietschmann See production, box office & company info Watch on Netflix S1 with subscription Add to Watchlist Very simple things like opening a door, you have to do it with your left hand. bo Odar: It was a bit tricky at the beginning. Season 1 was tricky enough, but midway through the second season you may find yourself needing to construct a character yarn board on your wall to remember everything that's happened, who the various actors are depicting at various intervals along the timeline, and when any given scene is taking place. But of course, movies likeThe ShiningorAlien, where you have a contained situation like a ship or hotel where people are stuck and they cant escape it, that creepy feeling of corridors and how much you can see or not see, that was definitely a major influence visually. The Creators of '1899' Reveal (Some of) the Secrets Behind the New Netflix Mystery Series Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, who also created the streamer's hit 'Dark,' are back with another meta. That was very fun. We always knew we wanted to save Regina. As you know with Dark, you dont have the straightforward narrative where you can go from one thing to the next. We know people will be going insane about it, but we always knew this would be our answer: we dont have an answer, because we do not know if theres a god or not. Whats the space in which youre telling your story? ', John Mulaney's New Netflix Special Is a Critical Reminder About Celebrity, 2023 Emmys Predictions: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie. Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the German creators of buzzy cult series Dark and 1899, have been tapped to develop a series. In the next phase I actually put it in pen. She also doesn't want viewers to expect to learn everything when the show ends. bo OdarI think we learned a lot to be honest, because it is a new tool. For example, on Dark, the idea of the parallel universe was always planned to be in the second season. One is theme, the other is character and the other is plot. They would go, God damn it! For a long time, even already in film school, we had this urge to change that, to really have characters from particular countries speak in their own voices, because language really defines character. What resonates with a lot of viewers is this feeling that we also sometimes have: do we matter? The treasure hunt is just getting started. WithDark, the story is really so much about time, about using something linear and then making lots of knots, throwing it at the audience and getting them to figure out how to untangle it back into a more linear logic. Thats where we basically put the groundwork, going for deterministic time travel rules. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! . Odar: We always wanted to plant computer wording. We realized that was insane to do on costs. Friese compared it to the Season 1 episode that first travels to the 1950s and the Season 2 episode that revisits the day of Michaels death. We have three age groups, and once you find one, then everything needs to relate to that person. Could bruiseless avocados, sugarcane plastic and carbon-capturing concrete actually exist in real life? Its a new kind of thinking for filmmaking: You have to think in layers and how you combine those layers. All Rights Reserved. "To create worlds you need to create patterns, and the best way to create patterns is by using symbols," he said. In every season there is what I always call a bridge episode, because to me its like the bridge in a song Friese said. Sometimes its just a table or a column in the dining room, or in a landscape, maybe a hill, to create depth. It's really bad. Were moving through a story, and we want to know how it will be resolved in the end. And we love to play with tools, because I think as a filmmaker, especially, you are like a child. And I dont want to spoil the meaning of that yet. There was something fascinating about exactly that moment in time. Weve heard people say its perfect timing because the issues in 1899 are very present today. As with every character in Dark, when youre sure you know who the villain is or whos doing the bad thing, you should be open for what made them that way because. We thought it better to shift. Of course, thats just a tiny part of the hook of Season 3s new alternate reality, one in which Marthas younger brother never travels back in time and never becomes Jonas father. Stairs that go from left to right, they now go from right to left. Related We said, this is a determined world, or it's based on determinism. Thats the beauty of storytelling. When Netflix was looking for the first German show, there were two things happening. Jantje Friese: They think they know how this works but they don't. They are still human. Succession Star Alan Ruck Breaks Down That Earth-Shattering Wedding and Death Episode, Jock Zonfrillo, Chef and 'MasterChef Australia' Judge, Dies at 46, John Oliver Mocks Matthew McConaughey's Five-Hour Virtual Motivational Seminar, John Oliver Mocks Matthew McConaugheys Five-Hour Virtual Motivational Seminar, The Morning Show Snags Early Season 4 Renewal at Apple TV+, Barry Star Sarah Goldberg on Sallys Point of No Return: Its the Final Nail in the Coffin, Succession Director on Filming That Surprise Cameo and Tying Up Her Kendall Trilogy, Melanie Lynskey Says Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson Lent Their Trailers on Mrs. But in the end, it turned out to be way easier than we thought, because theres a sort of universal language, without words, going on while youre communicating with someone. You can only stand here. If you just compare the first season ofDarkwith the first season of1899, I think theyre similarly complex. The international cast includes Darkalum Andreas Pietschmann, Emily Beecham, Aneurin Barnard, Fflyn Edwards, Miguel Bernardeau, Maciej Musial, Lucas Lynggaard Tnnesen, Rosalie Craig, Clara Rosager, Maria Erwolter, Yann Gael, Mathilde Ollivier, Jos Pimento, Isabella Wei, Gabby Wong, Jonas Bloquet, Alexandre Willaume, and Anton Lesser, among others. How Ben Afflecks Air Makes the Case for Movie Theaters to Build Buzz, How Succession Trapped the Roy Family in a VIP Room of Grief in Episode 3, Movies Shot on Film 2023 Preview: From Oppenheimer to Killers of the Flower Moon and Maestro, How Gene Kelly and Singin in the Rain Taught John Wick to Fight, The 50 Best Movies of 2022, According to 165 Critics from Around the World, All 81 Titles Unceremoniously Removed from HBO Max (So Far), 10 Shows Canceled but Not Forgotten in 2022. For me, its a very happy ending, realizing its not just about you all of the time. Some of it was something that we developed throughout the process. If you want to have an authentic performance, its just better when actors perform in their own language. Dark Duo Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar Add Volume to Their Process To mirror the world we know, we could either do that by rebuilding all of the sets. It was so easy for them to just react. You dont need to see it on screen. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! But the people creating the show needed more elaborate tracking methods. It was a very magical moment. "There was a huge pressure because, first of all, we never expected that kind of success, and then it grew season for season," Friese tells EW. Friese said, That was the centerpiece of it all. Poguelandia is not quite the paradise the Pogues hoped. Netflix has yet to address the viewership for Season 2 since it was only released recently on June 21, but the show is already in production for its third and final season, which will air sometime in 2020. ", Odar mentioned that it was a children's book on quantum physics that finally made it all make sense to him sort of. "Because in their arc, the narrative is straightforward. Stuff like that always happens. We added a glitch to it. The season weaves together not only five or six different time periods, but also a second version of those time periods, and goes back even further in time and more years along the way. In the first season ofDark we still had stuff on the walls, but no one ever looked at it. In terms of the working process, what was good for us was to talk to the people who worked onThe Mandalorian and find out how they did it. The first season is actually very simple: Its a small town, with kids disappearing, and then theres some time travel events in the cave. It was a very, very odd time, but also great to know the fans just embraced what youve done so much. After that, it goes straight to the computer. Friese: I think its something about growing up in Europe, or growing up as a German, when you consume entertainment, which, at least in our experience, is coming largely from Hollywood. Youre crossing into a new century, stepping from something that feels old school to something new the future. Your past is always pushing you into the direction you're going, while at the same time the future is pulling you. Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. Do you already have the world of 1899 built out in your mind for the potential next two seasons? A mysterious journey unfolds for a group of London migrs as they sail toward New York. Old Ines (Angela Winkler) in actual life has a mole, so you put that on younger Ines when you tried to make them match.. The one where EW follows up with the cast. "We always think we have. For Louis, being on set and shes entering the room with his jacket, the first reaction was like, Give me back my jacket! Then if you know something about simulation or content creation in that space, maybe youdo understand what that means in our context. In German, its so negative. "I would say it's a drama mystery show, or maybe a mystery thriller. 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Fortunately the similarities between some of the older and younger actors are so uncanny that often other clues arent necessary, and occasionally, some viewers are convinced that one actor has just been aged up using makeup and prosthetics such as in the case of Adult Ulrich (Oliver Masucci) and Elderly Ulrich (Winfried Glatzeder). What kind of symbols do you use? Michael (Sebastian Rudolph) is Michael. But that simple trick, listening to the music rather than trying to follow the words, that helped me a lot. 1899 also has a unique sound because, fitting with the theme of Europe you were talking about, you decided to have all your actors speak in their native languages. What was the original spark? We wanted to end on something that looks normal. Andreas Pietschmann plays Captain Eye Larsen in 1899. "And it helped us see that we can trust our instincts, and there are people out there that are actually interested in our voice and what we have to say and how [we] tell stories.". No, I didn't,'" he said. When Jantje Friese and her partner Baran bo Odar created their German-language science fiction series Dark for Netflix, they had no idea that it would become an international hit. It creates such a powerful illusion that, in the beginning, the crew and actors were actually getting seasick because the horizon was moving on the volume screen. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Just opening Final Draft took like five minutes because of all those script notes. There are actually two things. But the mid-ground, the thing in between, thats what actually glues these two layers together, and its the most important part of the whole process. When Jantje Frieseand her partner Baran bo Odar created their German-language science fiction series "Dark" for Netflix, they had no idea that it would become an international hit. 1899 Netflix TV Show Creators Interview - The Hollywood Reporter All Rights Reserved. In the series, a boy goes missing in the small German town of Winden, and as the series unspools, viewers learn that secrets, time travel, and a metaphysical battle between good and evil are behind that mystery. What kind of trigger words do you use? Our idea was always to do Greek tragedy below it even though its a sci-fi show, a mystery show, in its core, its really about human relationships and how fucked up they can be.. We already have ideas for a second and third season on 1899, and it gets complicated. Friese:There are always three key elements. In the development process we never thought of it as [just] a German show. There are a lot of symbols throughout, a lot of referencing systems in terms of religion, mythology.. We put a dot, wait a little, and then we put a question mark at the end. For two or four weeks I was completely lost to the world.. Friese: It was absolutely the perfect amount. Do you view it as a happy ending? We always approached it as a global show, but we never, never, never expected that kind of success.. Its a very long and also very complicated process. See how the filmmakers used 'Volume' to create a story at sea. And then the pandemic happens, the show was supposed to be shot in a very traditional way, where we would have gone to a water tank and we would have built ship set pieces and traveled to other countries to shoot scenes there and stuff like that," he says. Where to Watch This Week's New Movies, from 'Are You There God? Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, who also created the streamer's hit 'Dark,' are back with another meta mystery, this time set on a migrant steamer at the turn of 19th century. With that being said, is there still a story to tell in the universe of Dark, or do you feel closed at this point? Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar's latest mindbender 1899 has recently dropped on Netflix, and with it has come a swathe of comparisons to their previous endeavor, Dark.Even putting aside the duo . It was really fun. When we started with the show, obviously we werent sure whether we were going to get any audience because its just such an unusual narrative, said Friese. Thats the fun of it. The past shapes you and everything that happens.. Need help finding something to watch? Now we finally fill in the gaps and you see how the circle plays out. "We're always very, very interested in why people do the things they do, and how they came to be the person they are," Friese explained. And thus, fans of this science fiction series can be found discussing Nietzsche and other philosophers, trying to unlock the shows themes of free will and fate, alongside the physics of time travel. The show is the first from Netflix shot entirely in a virtual studio, using cutting-edge LED-Volume technology with a video game engine that creates virtual sets and locations, allowing complex visual-effects shots to be done in-camera. According to Friese, creating the mythology of one of their shows is a long, painstaking process. For answers to those questions and more, The Hollywood Reporter turned to Odar and Friese for a closer look at the final season of Dark. It's Me, Margaret' to 'R.M.N. Netflix's Dark, the streaming service's first German-language original series, follows four families in a small town who become engaged, sometimes unwittingly, in a time-traveling battle between seemingly good and evil forces. bo Odar:When we spoke to the guys behindThe Mandalorian, we asked them what worked and what was really complicated. If youre in that core group, and youve figured it out, you should be proud of yourself, its an awesome experience. We said from the start that1899should not look likeTitanic. You just trying to be flexible, to really allow the process to surprise you while youre going through it, but still kind of knowing where youre sailing to. In the middle, there may be some ideas that are more loosely thrown in. It never happened.'" It felt like unified Europe was slowly breaking apart, like every country was doing its own thing. One of the most challenging roles to cast was the nurse Ines who actually adopts Mikkel when he travels back to 1986. Friese:Our scripts look like Frankenstein monsters. When we got to the second season, we changed it again. Dark Season 2's Time-Travel Story, Explained By Its Creators It's really awkward for us, this huge success, we always question it. But you keep checking: Is it still working with the theme or do you need to shift that a bit? Where does he come from? That was the biggest structural issue: when do we reveal what? Never mind that in her own time, everyone including her son was facing a certain apocalypse. There were lots of right-wing ideas bubbling up. En route, they encounter a mysterious second ship, the Prometheus, which has been missing for months, adrift on the open sea. I have an answer, but its very personal. Do you have a huge board on the wall with red yarn linking up various elements? I need 360 degrees. Thats when the idea came to use a turntable so you can swap things in easily. You know it by the emotional state, how they are addressing you, their body language and everything. One must watch it. It definitely has a new look: Not like green screen but also not the same as a classic set, something very much its own thing. The same people laugh, cry, they get born, they die just fundamental human stuff. Friese credits casting director Simone Br for the series uncanny casting coups. Go Behind the Cutting-Edge Technology of 1899. 2023 IndieWire Media, LLC. You can search, for example, for a character, and then you see the character arc, or you can search for a timeline and then you can see everything that's happening in that timeline.". And as we go through the process, the ideas can shift and move into a different position. We spoke to Dark co-creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese about saying farewell to the series, the spiritual and mythological influences they crammed into the third season's eight episodes,. Obviously, a pyramid already gives you so much mysterious context. The song White Rabbit plays over the opening credits. Especially with a show like Dark, which does close so many of those open loopholes, theres always a certain amount of desire to stay with those characters and see what happens after the turmoil has subsided. Friese: When we started to research games, simulations, constructing virtual realities, [we learned] the way that content is created is that you use tetrahedron structures to basically build everything. They will never be able to overcome their inner longings, their ego. We can see that even if you dont really understand what words are being spoken, you understand what the other person is trying to communicate. The series certainly promises to be as mind-bending as Dark. Dark only really got complicated in seasons two and three. And because of that tone, you understand how the whole sentence is meant. How did the script work did you write in German and then have things translated? They said the most complicated thing was actually the logistics, scheduling when you can shoot what, how to get sets in and out and the reverse shots, all those sorts of things. So every riddle we put in there, we feel we have to solve it, she said. Do you first have the themes and then drop in characters and develop the mystery out of that or do you have the puzzle first and then see how the characters and themes fit into that? Finally we could do whatever we wanted with them. So, as I said, we learned a lot. When you write, how do you plot things out? From Barbie to The Flash, Here Are the Movies That Made the Biggest Impact at CinemaCon. Naturally, that's by design, and is something fans should look out for as they watch. But the novel is so voluminous that the miniseries format makes more sense." So, but Im not going to tell you whether were going to or not..
