Following the success of season three, Vienna Blood, the thrilling period crime drama set in the early 1900s has been recommissioned by ORF (Austria) and ZDF (Germany) for a fourth season special. Available as 2 x 90’ or 4 x 45’, this fourth outing has also been acquired by BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, and PBS. The fourth season, unlike the previous three seasons, will feature a single story told over multiple episodes.
It’s Vienna, 1909 and the double murder of an arms dealer in police custody and a senior public official has shaken Vienna to its core. Doctor Max Liebermann has only just returned from a tour of the U.S. when Inspector Rheinhardt asks for help in what could be the biggest case of their career. Oskar and Max discover a conspiracy that leads to the heart of government. Can the Freudian psychiatrist and the detective do enough to stop a seditious mole known as ‘Mephisto’ from bringing the Austro-Hungarian Empire to destruction? And will their lives ever be the same again?
Filming begins in Austria this summer, with Matthew Beard (The Imitation Game, Dracula) and Juergen Maurer (Vorstadtweiber, Tatort) reprising their roles as crime-fighting duo Doctor Max Liebermann and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt.
Produced by award-winning production company Endor Productions (Anansi Boys, Deep State) and MR Film in Austria (Maximilian, Das Sacher), season four will once again be adapted by acclaimed screenwriter Steve Thompson (Jericho, Sherlock, Deep State, Leonardo).
Carlo Dusi, Managing Director of Endor Productions, says: “We couldn’t be happier to rejoin forces with our friends at MR Film as we prepare to bring another dose of Vienna Blood to audiences worldwide, alongside our partners at ORF, ZDF, BBC, PBS and Red Arrow Studios International. Together with writer Steve Thompson, director Umut Dag, Juergen and Matthew and the rest of our incredibly talented cast and crew, we have conceived a special new cocktail of crime and drama inspired, as always, by Frank Tallis’s wonderful novels, which we are confident will surprise and delight our viewers.
Oliver Auspitz and Andreas Kamm of MR Film add: “We are delighted to bring yet another season of Vienna Blood directly out of Vienna to a worldwide audience. Working alongside our trusted partners Endor Productions, Red Arrow Studios International, ORF and ZDF; with the support of Austria’s new rebate system FISAplus, Television Fund Austria and TV-Filmfund Vienna, and together with creatives like director Umut Dag, writer Steve Thompson and our leading actors Juergen and Matthew (to name just a few of our fantastic cast and crew), it’s a pleasure to work on this compelling and exciting new case for Oskar Rheinhardt and Max Liebermann.”
Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia, VP Scripted Acquisitions & Co-Productions, Red Arrow Studios International, comments: “We are thrilled to be returning to early 1900s Vienna for Max Liebermann and Oskar Rheinhardt’s most pressing and consequential case yet. It’s a pleasure to be working once again with our partners Endor Productions, MR Film and writer Steve Thompson, and we cannot wait to bring this compelling new season to audiences worldwide.”
The producers of Vienna Blood are Jez Swimer for Endor; Oliver Auspitz, Andreas Kamm and Catrin Strasser for MR Film; commissioning editors are Klaus Lintschinger and Kerstin Bertsch for ORF and Wolfgang Feindt for ZDF; executive producers are Steve Thompson; Carlo Dusi for Endor; Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia for Red Arrow Studios International, and Hilary Bevan Jones. Other funding partners include FISAplus, Film in Austria (ABA), Televisionfund Austria and TV-Filmfund Vienna. Red Arrow Studios International will distribute the series globally.