Jonah Hauer-King, Anna Próchniak, Melanie Lynskey, and Jonas Nay star in upcoming Sky and Peacock Original drama, The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Hauer-King and Próchniak to play lead roles as Lale Sokolov and Gita Furman, with Lynskey set to star as author, Heather Morris, and Nay as Stefan Baretzki in the limited event series produced by Synchronicity Films.
Award-winning Tali Shalom-Ezer on board to direct the heavily anticipated drama.
Claire Mundell and Jacquelin Perske Executive Produce.
With over 12m copies of the novel sold globally, Sky and Peacock today reveal that Jonah Hauer-King (Little Women, World on Fire) and Anna Próchniak (Baptiste, Warsaw 44) are set to take up the lead roles of Lale Sokolov and Gita Furman, in the Sky and Peacock Original adaptation and Synchronicity Films production of The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
The eagerly awaited series, based on the bestselling novel of the same name, will also star Critics Choice Awards winner Melanie Lynskey (The Last of Us, Yellowjackets) as Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz novel. Jonas Nay (Deutschland 83, 86, 89) will be joining the series in the role of Stefan Baretzki. Award-winning director Tali Shalom-Ezer (My Days of Mercy, Princess) is attached to direct all six episodes, bringing a unique perspective to the series.
The heartrending series about bravery and love in the darkest of places, tells the powerful true-life story of Lale Sokolov, a Jewish prisoner who is given the job of tattooing identification numbers on fellow prisoners’ arms in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War Two.
One day, he meets Gita when tattooing her prisoner number on her arm. They experience love at first sight, and so begins a life-affirming, courageous, unforgettable, and human story, told through one man’s memory and experience of Auschwitz-Birkenau; a tale of the very best of humanity in the very worst of circumstances.
Currently in production, the series is a co-production between Sky Studios and Peacock with NBCUniversal Global Distribution and All3Media International jointly handling international sales of the series.
Produced by Synchronicity Films in association with Sky Studios, the series speaks to the growing ambition of Sky Studios to create unmissable original dramas, that resonate with viewers globally.
STAN, Australia’s leading local streamer is taking the Original rights to the series in their territory, with VIAPLAY taking Viaplay Series rights for Nordics (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland), Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the Netherlands and Poland.
Jonah Hauer-King, comments: “It is a huge privilege to be telling Lale’s incredible story — one that he was so courageous to share. I have the utmost respect and admiration for his ability to find humanity and kindness in the most inhumane of places. These scripts heartbreakingly and vividly depict this appalling time in our history, and I feel proud to be honouring Lale and Gita’s remarkable journey.” Anna Próchniak, adds: “Reimagining Gita Sokolov and her story for screen has been one of the greatest honours of my career so far, as well as a heartrending experience. I know this won’t be an easy story to tell, but I will treat their story with the utmost respect.” Melanie Lynskey, adds: “After the horrors experienced at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the continuation of Lale and Gita Sokolov’s story is finding their new home, and it was years later in Australia Lale felt comfortable to share his story with New Zealand author Heather Morris. As a New Zealand storyteller in my own way, it is a privilege to be a part of the furthering of Lale’s and Gita’s heart-breaking, yet heart-warming story.”
Tali Shalom-Ezer, Director, said: ““In Auschwitz, a factory of death and dehumanisation, Lale and Gita’s love story is an act of defiance. It is the choice to remain human. I’m inspired and honoured to bring this story to life, alongside the talented team of people assembled.”
Claire Mundell, Executive Producer for Synchronicity Films, adds: “Bringing Lale and Gita’s beautiful love story to the screen is a privilege and to have Jonah, Anna, Melanie, and Jonas joining us on this journey is a dream come true. We’re excited to be working with Tali and her vision for the show, and we’re grateful to Heather for trusting us with her beautiful book. I hope everyone of Heather’s 12 million plus readers will come to the show and fall in love with Lale and Gita, as we have.”
Serena Thompson, Executive Producer for Sky Studios, adds: “The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a powerful, affecting, and timely story. This landmark, event series will resonate with viewers the world over and we are pleased to have brought together an incredible team in Synchronicity and our talented cast – Jonah, Anna, Jonas and Melanie – under the superb direction of Tali.”
Produced by Synchronicity Films in association with Sky Studios, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is commissioned by Serena Thompson, Executive Producer at Sky Studios for Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content, Sky UK. Claire Mundell is Executive Producer for Synchronicity Films. Lead Writer Jacquelin Perske is also an Executive Producer on the project and Heather Morris is Story Consultant. Evan Placey and Gabbie Asher are episode writers.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is currently in production and will be available on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in 2024 in the UK, Ireland, Italy and Germany.
For more information please contact:
Sky
sarah.gutierrez@sky.uk
hannah.forde@sky.uk
About Sky
Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of Comcast Corporation, a global media and technology company that connects people to moments that matter. Across six countries, Sky connects 23 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own award-winning original content.
Following the launch of Sky Glass, we now offer customers our strongest ever line-up of products and services. As well as the new streaming TV with Sky inside and everything integrated, customers can enjoy the award-winning Sky Q with all your favourite channels and apps in one place, and with Sky Go you can now access an even better experience on your devices. Sky TV has new channels, new shows and new deals with Peacock, Paramount+ and more. Sky Mobile was voted Best Pay Monthly and Best Value Pay Monthly network by Uswitch, and with Sky Broadband we’re offering our fastest speeds yet.
Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years alone. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free; Sky Arts is the UKs only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service, brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Sky Cinema is the home of Sky Original films with brand new films launching every month alongside an unrivalled range of the latest cinema releases and on demand library.
We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 and we’re proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26 – the UN Climate Change Conference. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we’ve been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity, and we’ve set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation. We’re also committed to investing £30million across our markets over the next three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.
About Synchronicity Films
Synchronicity Films is an award-winning scripted production company owned and run by BAFTA winning producer and executive producer Claire Mundell. Synchronicity has a growing reputation for high quality adaptations of critically acclaimed IP such as the Sunday Times / New York Times bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz; Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies which was produced for BBC1 last year. Upcoming projects include Hanif Kureishi’s The Body; Graeme Armstrong’s The Young Team and Booker shortlisted His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.
Synchronicity produced BBC One psychological thriller The Cry, adapted from Helen FitzGerald’s novel by Jacquelin Perske. The company is also active in film with credits including Karen Gillan’s The Party’s Just Beginning; BIFA / BAFTA nominated Only You by Harry Wootliff; and Andrew Haigh’s film Weekend.
About Sky Studios
Sky Studios is Sky’s original programming arm across Europe.
We develop, produce and commission original drama and scripted comedy for Sky’s 23m customers and beyond. Building on the success of critically acclaimed Sky Originals including Emmy-winning Gangs of London, BAFTA-nominated Landscapers, international hits Babylon Berlin and Das Boot, as well as upcoming series Day of the Jackal, M. Son of the Century, and Helgoland 513.
We’re an agile Studio, seeking out the best untold stories from new voices while working in creative partnership with today’s best writers, producers, and on-screen talent to bring viewers stories they wouldn’t find anywhere else.
With commissioning talent and production capability across the UK, Germany, and Italy, we understand local tastes across Europe better than anyone else and have plans to more than double our investment in original content by 2024, fully supported and backed by Comcast NBCUniversal.
We’re also developing a new TV and film studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK creative sector in the first five years alone.
About Peacock
Peacock is NBCUniversal’s streaming service. Peacock delivers a world-class slate of exclusive originals, on-demand libraries of hit TV shows, plus critically acclaimed films from the vaults of Universal Pictures, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation, Illumination, and Hollywood’s biggest studios. In addition, Peacock taps into NBCUniversal’s unmatched ability to deliver a broad range of compelling topical content across news, sports, late-night, Spanish-language, and reality. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.
Photo Credits:
Ricardo DeArantanha (Melanie Lynskey)
Joseph Sinclair (Jonah Hauer-King)
Aleksander Ikaniewicz (Anna Próchniak)
Lucas Wahl (Jonas Nay)
