Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

As part of their drive to create “unique, authentic and entertaining local stories that reflect the places and faces on their doorstep”, Prime Video is working on an adaptation of The Gryphon.

Based on the cult novel of the same name by Wolfgang Hohlbein, Germany’s most successful living novelist with 40 million books sold worldwide, The Gryphon tells of three outsiders, teens Mark, Memo and Becky who come into contact with a fantastic world called the Black Tower. There, the Griffin, a world-devouring monster, has been mercilessly plundering and subjugating all living creatures for centuries. And the three friends, of all people, seem destined to end this reign of terror.

Showrunners Erol Yesilkaya (script) and Sebastian Marka (director) adapt the material into six 45-minute episodes. The Gryphon is a production of W&B Television in cooperation with DogHaus Film for Amazon Studios. Executive producers are Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann (The Lives of Others, Dark) as well as André Zoch (How to Sell Drugs Online Fast).

“We were all fans of the novel as teenagers and the enthusiasm immediately sets in today as adult readers,” said W&B Television’s Berg. “Sebastian and Erol have an impressive vision and I’m delighted that today, thanks to Amazon, we are able to realise such a great and fascinating material as a series and thus inspire millions of viewers worldwide.”

Erol Yesilkaya and Sebastian Marka added: “Our adaptation of The Gryphon has an absolutely fresh approach to the fantasy genre – a bit like Donnie Darko got lost in Middle Earth.”