Daniel Bruhl has just added a TV project to his increasingly busy schedule. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bruhl has officially signed on for the 10-part limited series Mafiya.
Mafiya, written by William Nicholson (Gladiator, Les Miserables, Everest), takes place in 1990s Moscow and follows street trader Mischa’s rise to power among the gangs and private armies vying for control. The series is being financed and distributed by The Weinstein Company and ITV Studios. It is being produced by Kris Thykier (Harry Brown, Kick-Ass, The Debt) and Liza Marshall (Red Riding Trilogy, Before I Go To Sleep, Welcome to the Punch) under their Archery Pictures company.
On joining Mafiya, Bruhl simply told The Hollywood Reporter, “Yeah, I’m signed up. It’s such a great, great story.”
Back in August of 2015, in an article from Deadline reporting the news of Mafiya being developed, Thykier and Marshall conveyed their enthusiasm for the series and working with Nicholson. “Bill has created a fascinating and thrilling window into the world of the Russian Oligarchy. An epic drama that takes you from the fall of the Berlin Wall through to the election of Vladimir Putin,” Thykier and Marshall said. “We are excited to bring his vision to life and could not be happier to be partnering with the combined might of The Weinstein Company and ITV Studios Global Entertainment.”
At the time, Nicholson also shared his eagerness for writing Mafiya. “Mafiya is the most exciting project I’ve ever worked on — all the visceral thrills of film, plus the story and character complexity of a novel. Through fiction,” said Nicholson, “the framing of the series is historically deeply researched. These ten years witnessed every conceivable crime and every conceivable excess, and yet this was a time of dreams: dreams of democracy and freedom, dreams of making money and spending it.”
Daniel Bruhl, along with this project, has had a lot on his plate recently. Right now he can be seen as Zemo in the new entry in the Marvel cinematic universe, Captain America: Civil War. He will also be seen alongside Jessica Chastain in Niki Caro’s (Whale Rider, McFarland, USA) The Zookeeper’s Wife, about Warsaw Zoo zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski as they help save the lives of people and animals during the Nazi invasion. He has also signed on to appear alongside John Krasinski and David Oyelowo in Julius Onah’s (Goodbye Chicken, Farwell Goat, The Girl Is in Trouble) sci-fi thriller God Particle, about an astronaut team’s fight for survival against their reality-altering discovery. Bruhl is probably most well known for his role as Fredrick Zoller in Inglorious Basterds and as Chris Hemsworth’s rival Niki Lauda in Rush.