Two-part stories
Nico Hofmann transforms the present into interesting stories and enthrals TV viewers with his two-part miniseries.
Nico Hofmann works very much like an editor: reading newspapers and magazines, marking articles and paragraphs, taking notes. But he’s actually looking for stories that are simply asking to be told – in the cinema or on TV. You see, Nico Hofmann is a film producer – in fact, Germany’s most successful producer with ten productions a year. His recipe: emotionalising and fictionalising the present to create gripping stories. His trick: the two-part miniseries, a format he has established and perfected. He had millions of TV viewers glued to their screens for Rommel, the life story of the German general, and Bornholmer Strasse, a tragicomedy about the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Grzimek, an homage to the Frankfurt zoologist, is already in the can, while Beckenbauer, a documentary on Germany’s greatest footballer, will be shown in September 2015 to mark the “Kaiser’s” 70th birthday. Hofmann’s career began with an “in-house production”. When he was 18, he filmed his parents’ separation with a Super 8 camera. At the film academy, he transferred his father’s war diaries to the silver screen. Whatever moves Hoffmann can become his subject. His present includes stories about his mother’s and father’s generation.
