Veteran German producers Michael Polle (Babylon Berlin), and Mischa Hofmann (Spy City), are joining forces to launch a new production company, Polle & Hofmann Pictures, the pair announced Wednesday.
Based in Munich, the film and TV outfit will see the pair reunite twenty years after their first collaboration, on crime series Tatort: Streets of Berlin, produced by Hofmann’s Hofmann & Voges Entertainment (H&V) shingle, back in 2005.
At H&V and then later at Odeon Fiction, which bought out the company in 2007, Voges oversaw the production of more than 200 films and TV series, including German film award winner John Rabe, groundbreaking German comedy series Türkisch für Anfänger and the espionage thriller Spy City featuring Dominic Cooper and September 5 star Leonie Benesch.
Polle worked at H&V as a producer from 2007 to 2010, when he joined Berlin-based X-Filme Creative Pool. He took over as managing director at X Filme in 2021. His credits include the internationally acclaimed period drama Babylon Berlin, hit Norwegian crime series Furia, and, most recently, the true-life financial thriller Other People’s Money, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.
“I’ve known Michael since 2005 [and] we haven’t lost sight of each other since then,” said Hofmann in a statement. “Now we see the right time to work together again because we have the same view of projects and producing in general. We both want to act independently and concentrate on content and creative allies. We rely on very close relationships with extraordinary talents. We want quality over quantity and to be the first port of call for partners who value and share this attitude.”
Polle emphasized the duo’s aim with their new company will be to build “a home for creatives” and to produce emotionally resonant stories for both cinema and television, targeting both national and international markets.
Polle currently serves as deputy chairman of the TV section of the German Producers Alliance.
