Das Boot TV drama wraps filming in Malta

Submarine drama series Das Boot (The Boat) has wrapped a 105-day shoot with scenes filmed in water tanks and on the open ocean around Malta.

Das Boot is a $30m sequel to Wolfgang Petersen’s iconic 1981 story of the same name – screened as both a film and a TV series – that followed the crew of a German submarine targeting Allied shipping in the Atlantic during the Second World War.

The production team on the new Sky TV series spent eight weeks refurbishing a 240-tonne U-boat that was used for exterior shots in the French city of La Rochelle – a German naval base during the war – and again later for ocean-set scenes that were filmed around Malta.

Malta is internationally renowned for its water tank facilities, two of which are exterior and offer a natural ocean horizon as a result of their coastal positioning.

Interiors of the U-boat were built as a separate, 45-metre-long set mounted on a hydraulic gimbal on a stage in Prague.

“The scale of this production, including filming in four different countries with 79 actors and almost 1,000 extras, has been an incredible project to be a part of and I would like to thank the cast and crew for all their hard work,” said Andreas Prochaska, director of the new series.

Whereas Petersen’s film took place entirely on a U-boat, the new miniseries will cross-cut between the U-boat crew and another narrative involving Resistance fighters in La Rochelle.