Harper’s Bazaar

Diane Kruger has been perfectly cast as legendary German actor and notable resistance fighter Marlene Dietrich in an upcoming miniseries.

DIANE KRUGER has been expertly cast in the role of a lifetime. She will be starring as the legendary late German actor and singer, Marlene Dietrich in a new biopic miniseries.

Following the announcement, Kruger called Dietrich — seemingly her doppelgänger — an “icon” who she will aim to honour “through an extraordinary epoch.” Especially so when the series is based on the very same biography written by Dietrich’s daughter.

With filming only just underway, here’s everything we know about the miniseries believed to be titled Marlene.

What is the Marlene Dietrich miniseries about?

While information on the miniseries is sparse, The Hollywood Reporter says it will be five parts and based on Marlene Dietrich’s biography Meine Mutter Marlene, translated as My Mother Marlene — written by her daughter, Maria Riva.

Marlene is said to paint an “intimate portrait” of Dietrich’s global success as an actor and singer, with some of her most popular on-screen roles including the musical drama The Blue Angel (1930) and Shanghai Express (1932), as well as her extraordinary off-screen life. For those unfamiliar with Dietrich, she was born in Berlin in 1902 and was fearless in her resistance to Nazi-occupied Europe and her subsequent exile to Hollywood.

While Dietrich married Czech film producer Rudolf Sieber, she also had a brief romance with influential French actor Jean Gabin, challenged then-normalised gender roles on film and made blockbusters — even during wartime. She also selflessly donated a portion of her salary to assist with refugees.

Who stars in the Marlene Dietrich miniseries?

The Inglorious Basterds and National Treasure actor Diane Kruger — who is American-German herself — will play Marlene Dietrich in the series created by film director and screenwriter Fatih Akin. Kruger will also serve as executive producer, but no other casting announcements have been made just yet.

Kruger previously teamed up with Akin for the evocative German drama film In The Fade, which sees a woman take revenge for the racially-motivated killing of her husband and six-year-old son in a bomb attack perpetrated by Neo-Nazis. The film premiered at Cannes in 2017, and saw Kruger win Best Actress.

“With Fatih’s talent and ability to see inside the soul of every person, I’m certain that this won’t just be a series about the icon and world star Marlene Dietrich but most of all an intimate portrait of this singular woman living through an extraordinary epoch,” Kruger said in a statement.

“I can’t wait to get in front of Fatih’s camera again and together put Marlene Dietrich back in the spotlight.”

Akin was equally in praise of Kruger, suggesting she was the only option for Dietrich.

“No one could be better cast than her. Marlene wasn’t just a cinema icon, but a woman in exile, a German migrant to America, a resistance fighter and much more,” Akin said.

The miniseries is a joint-production between Akn’s Bombero International and German mini-major UFA Fiction, the latter of which has long-standing ties to Dietrich, as Akin explained.

“She was also a UFA artist, which is why I’m even happier that the series has found its home there.”

“Marlene Dietrich is an icon of our time: In her open attitude towards sexuality, her clear [anti-war] stance in Nazi Germany, her cosmopolitan nature and in her embrace of diversity… Marlene Dietrich is [both] myth and legacy, one of the greatest German biographies that has never been told in its true complexity,” UFA Fiction’s Nico Hofmann and Sebastian Werninger, both producers on the series said.

When is the Marlene Dietrich miniseries out?

With filming just underway, no premiere date has been shared just yet. No doubt, this will be an unmissable series upon release.