WarnerMedia Germany seeks satire with Ramadan & Gervais

WarnerMedia Germany has commissioned Greenlight: German Genius, a new comedy series set in the world of local TV and starring Kida Khodr Ramadan and Ricky Gervais as themselves.

Warner TV Comedy and W&B Television are producing the 8 x 30-minute series, which is currently filming in Berlin and is a dramatised retelling of real events following a 2018 Twitter exchange in which Gervais praised Ramadan for his performance in German crime drama 4 Blocks.

In Greenlight: German Genius, Ramadan persuades Gervais to give him the rights to make a German adaptation of his BBC comedy series Extras. However, he runs into difficulty due to the lack of international stars in the country and the fact that Germans are not particularly known for their sense of humour.

German actors, musicians and comedians, including Detlev Buck, Frederick Lau, Tom Schilling, Veysel Gelin, Olli Schulz and Heike Makatsch are set to appear in the series.

The show is produced in cooperation with CAB Film, Macadamia & Mothermilk and in collaboration with BBC Studios Germany and Studio Babelsberg.

Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann, Angélique Kommer, Detlev Buck, Cüneyt Kaya, Ramadan, Hannes Heyelmann and AnkeGreifeneder will executive produce. Buck, Kaya, Constantin Lieb and Seraina Nyikos are writing the series, with Kaya and Buck directing.

Greifeneder, VP of original production at WarnerMedia Germany, commented: “Greenlight: German Genius satirises the German media landscape and at the same time its own origins – Ricky Gervais’ tweet – did actually happen and ultimately led to the idea for the series.

“After the mockumentary Other Parents (Andere Eltern) and the dramedy The Mopes, we are once again showing a completely different variety of humour in our latest Warner TV original and are delighted to have attracted this outstanding cast.”