The hit novel “Der Schwarm” by Frank Schätzing was turned into a series by ZDF. The curse of the event series ensures that the adaptation advertises itself with a particularly boring poster.
The Swarm (Source: Themoviedb.org)
- Fans of Frank Schätzing’s “Der Schwarm” may be looking forward to the ZDF series adaptation, even if the author distanced himself from it.
- However, the ugly poster for the series, in the best tradition of German TV miniseries, will hardly arouse the interest of new viewers.
After a long wait, “The Swarm”, Frank Schätzing’s best-selling novel from 2004, was finally made into a film. The result was not a cinema blockbuster, but a mini-series for ZDF, from which Schätzing has since distanced himself. You can argue about the changes in content, but at least everyone who has read the 1000-page tome should be able to understand the adaptation as a series. No film is long enough for this extensive story!
With this decision, however, “Der Schwarm” also shares the fate of all TV miniseries from Germany: the official poster is incredibly ugly and boring. For decades now, TV stations have been trusting that big heads of the cast, lined up neatly next to each other, will be enough of an incentive for the audience to guarantee good ratings.
But what does the “The Swarm” motif that is lurking on billboards all over Germany say? Actually nothing. A ship, a whale, the ocean, countless heads and the title of the series – if you don’t know the novel, you probably won’t notice the poster.
“The Swarm” is of course in the best company of the event series from RTL, Sat.1 or the public broadcasters. Who could resist when Heino Ferch, Heiner Lauterbach and Jan Josef Liefers look seriously into the camera?
Big posters with big heads
Flying big heads are particularly popular on posters for German TV productions, but if necessary a group photo of the assembled cast will suffice.
In the case of “Hai-Alarm auf Mallorca” alone, the heads don’t bother us much, after all, the title alone is the best argument here. Apart from that, the trust in one’s own cast is laudable, but it only gets the same audience in front of the television and hardly the younger target group that the broadcasters are so aimed at.
In the case of “Der Schwarm” the situation is made even more difficult by the fact that the actors depicted are hardly known on German television. Bigger names like Oliver Masucci or Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, who also play in “Der Schwarm”, can’t be found here, although the latter was perhaps deliberately omitted so as not to scare off older viewers.
“The Swarm” fans may not agree with Frank Schätzing’s criticism that the ZDF production did not adapt the story of the novel enough and are happy with this eight-part adaptation, the first three episodes of which are now available in the ZDF media library stand. But the Hollywood film for “The Swarm” that Schätzing once planned would most likely have had at least a fancier poster.
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