RTL fall sked heavy on U.S. fare

Web will celebrate 25th anniversary next year

By ED MEZA

BERLIN — “Superman Returns,” “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “The Devil Wears Prada” are among the Hollywood blockbusters soon debuting on leading commercial web RTL Television.

The broadcaster on Thursday unveiled its upcoming fall and early 2009 lineup at a special presentation in Hamburg that also offered a preview of RTL’s 25th anniversary, which the channel will be celebrating next year.

The web’s high-profile new highlights also include “Miami Vice,” “Night at the Museum,” “Borat” and “Ice Age: The Meltdown” as well as new seasons of hit shows like “Prison Break,” “House,” “CSI” and “CSI: Miami,” “Psych,” “Monk” and “My Name is Earl.”

RTL topper Anke Schaeferkordt said the broadcaster would be seeing increases in genres across the board, from series and films to made-for-TV movies, entertainment formats and sport events.

Lavish in-house productions include “The Charlemagne Code,” a $7 million actioner about an archeologist on a perilous quest to find the legendary Nibelung treasure, and “Die Patin” (The Godmother), about a woman who finds herself thrust into a world of organized crime while having to protect her family.

Among RTL’s new series are “Lasko,” about a kung fu Catholic monk who fights for justice as a member of the secret order Pugnus Dei, and Germany’s first daily soap-actioner, “112 - Sie retten dein Leben,” about an elite rescue team.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, one of the web’s upcoming entertainment formats will be “25 Jahre RTL” (25 Years RTL).

It’s one of a slew of new and returning reality formats that also include “Einmal im Leben – 30 Dinge, die man tun muss” (Once in a Lifetime: 30 Things You Have to Do), “Der Hotelinspektor,” which follows its host as he tries to help turn around troubled establishments, and a new season of the hit show “Bauer sucht Frau” (Farmer Wants a Wife).