The Swarm TV series: apocalyptic Frank Schatzing adaptation premieres at Berlin Film Festival

An adaptation of author Frank Schätzing’s apocalyptic sci-fi novel The Swarm (you can pick up a copy at THIS LINK) has been a long time coming. In 2006, Uma Thurman and producers Michael Souvignier, Ica Souvignier, and Till Grönemeyer acquired the film rights, with The Silence of the Lambs screenwriter Ted Tally handling the adaptation and Dino De Laurentiis on board to help finance the film. But it didn’t make it into production. In 2018, it was announced that Game of Thrones executive producer Frank Doelger was teaming with Beta Film and ZDF Enterprises to bring The Swarm to the screen as an eight-part TV series… and four years later, that series is finally ready to be seen! A television airdate hasn’t been set yet, but Variety reports that The Swarm will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Hopefully details on the TV and/or streaming release will be available then as well.

A global environmental thriller, The Swarm is set in a present day where anomalies and unnatural behavior in marine animals are causing upheaval all over the world. Millions of strange worms suddenly appear on the bottom of the North Sea, drilling their way through frozen methane, threatening to destabilize the entire continental shelf. Swarms of mussels stop large vessels from maneuvering. Toxic jellyfish, lobsters and whales start attacking human beings along the coasts of the world. It follows a global group of scientists and military who come together to tackle one of the biggest challenges mankind has ever faced. They make the chilling discovery that we are not the only intelligent species on this planet – and that deep down at the bottom of the sea resides a collective intelligence which has suffered the ravages of civilization on its habitat and decided to fight back.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the TV adaptation stars an ensemble of actors from Europe, Japan, America, and Canada. The cast includes Cécile de France (High Tension), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Sex Education), Jack Greenlees (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Lydia Wilson (Flack), Krista Kosonen (Blade Runner 2049), Alexander Karim (Dying of the Light), Leonie Benesch (Babylon Berlin), Barbara Sukowa (Hannah Arendt), Takuya Kimura (I Came With the Rain), Takehiro Hiera (Giri/Haji), Rosabell Laurenti Sellers (Game of Thrones), Dutch Johnson (Veep), and Joshua Odjick (Unsettled).

The Swarm was originally expected to start filming in 2019, but the development of the series and production prep took longer than expected, then filming was delayed a year due to the pandemic. Filming finally began in the summer of 2021 and took place in Italy and Belgium.

How does The Swarm sound to you? Have you read the novel, and are you looking forward to this TV adaptation? Let us know by leaving a comment below.