In June , it was announced that a television series adaptation of the film, Das Boot , would be made. The director of season one, Andreas Prochaska, explained that it was important for the series to maintain the anti-war stance and "explore the perennial theme of what war does to people", but it would not be possible to sustain "the original film's relentless focus on a submarine crew Betz, to set the series in late , "after the Allies have cracked the German military's Enigma code and can track the movement of their submarine fleets", enabled a foretelling of the impacts of these events, not only upon the U-boat crews but also their loved ones and others connected to them.
From , the series is filmed in 8K resolution. By using longer focal lengths, such as the 29mm, 35mm and 50mm, the subjects are brought closer to the camera, thus allowing the audience to "be closer to the characters' emotions" as the tragedies of war mount. Filming for season one started on 31 August and finished on 20 February Filming for season two began in April and completed in July , [ 49 ] [ 50 ] taking place again in Malta, Prague and La Rochelle, and a new location, England.
In season three, Prague was the location for the exterior scenes set in Kiel and Liverpool, while Malta was used for the interiors of Lisbon and Liverpool. For the fourth season, filming of the six episodes began in June [ 60 ] and wrapped in September Betz, Tony Saint, Colin Teevan and Judith Angerbauer, among others, collaborate to ensure that the nuances of the languages are appropriately translated and deployed.
For the opening theme, composer Matthias Weber [ de ] [ 63 ] added to composer Klaus Doldinger 's anthem for the film "a simple piano" melody and "an underlying bass pulse". I'm happy to be back on board Das Boot and compliments to Matthias Weber". Das Boot is produced in 8K resolution and Dolby Atmos three-dimensional audio technology. A special rig was built for the production by a Maltese armoury team, that allowed the submarine's anti-aircraft gun to both fire and recoil, which had not been done before with a blank-firing gun.
It is 45 metres long, 5 metres wide, filling up an area of square metres, and able to simulate the motion of a submarine in water. Like the infamous laughing swordfish Der lachende Schwertfisch emblem that adorned U in the film, each featured U-boat in the series also bears an emblem on either side of the conning tower which represents, at times incongruously, the characters of the boat's captain and its crew. The emblem for Wrangel's U is a skeleton; Hoffmann's first U-boat, U , a scorpion; [ 77 ] Reinhartz's U , a falcon; Buchner's U , a sewer rat; the boat scuttled by Swinburne, a fox; and Hoffman's last U-boat, U , a cockroach.
