EXCLUSIVE: Bad Sisters star Claes Bang is fronting a TV series based on the life of one of the pioneers of plastic surgery.
Dr. Jakob is being created by British writer Barbara Machin and developed by Maxton Hall -The World Between Us producer UFA Fiction with Paper Entertainment, following the eccentric and visionary Doctor Jakob Joseph whose radical methods and deep humanity clashed with the fierce resistance of the medical establishment.
Danish star Bang, whose credits include Bad Sisters, Dracula and The Square, is Joseph, the Jewish doctor whose life becomes increasingly endangered after World War One. He had performed the first documented aesthetic surgical procedure in 1896, an act that pushed him to the margins of the medical community. But when floods of severely disfigured soldiers began returning from the First World War with injuries never before seen by mankind, the once mocked outsider became indispensable to a society in urgent need of new medical solutions.
UFA Fiction and Paper described the eight-parter as a “character-driven and highly suspenseful medical drama.” More casting will be revealed in due course.
Bang said Joseph’s story “has been quietly erased” over the years. “It would be an irresistible challenge to explore his story and bring him to the screen,” he added.
UFA Fiction MD Nataly Kudiabor said: “We were surprised that it was British creatives who brought Jakob Joseph to our attention, while in Germany his name remains largely unknown. How can a European visionary who helped shape modern plastic surgery be almost forgotten?”
Paper MD Julien Leroux added: “We’re thrilled to announce Dr. Jakob and even more so to be developing it with such brilliant partners. Claes Bang will no doubt be an extraordinary central character which we can’t wait the global audiences to discover.”
The show is in development and doesn’t yet have a buyer. EPs are Kudiabor and Denise Neustadt (UFA Fiction) as well as Leroux and Caroline Amer (Paper Entertainment). The script is written by Machin.
Fremantle-owned UFA Fiction’s credits include the likes of Maxton Hall and Emil and the Detectives. Paper is working on an English-language version of Israeli comedy-drama Johnny and the Knights of the Galilee.
