Netflix Books Session With Austrian Period Crime Thriller 'Freud'

The streaming giant will release the thriller, which follows a young Sigmund Freud, a medium and a cop tracking a serial killer in 19th century Vienna.

Netflix has boarded Freud, an upcoming Austrian thriller series that imagines the young psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud using his groundbreaking techniques to track a serial killer in 19th century Vienna.

Netflix will launch Freud internationally outside Austria, Belgium, Finland and Hungary. Austria's public broadcaster ORF is the commissioning network on the eight-part series, which begins production this fall.

The crime drama imagines the founder of psychoanalysis teaming up with a medium and a local cop to track a serial killer terrorizing Vienna.

Marvin Kren, whose credits include the acclaimed German series 4 Blocks for TNT Series, is attached to direct the German-language series and is co-writing the show together with Stefan Brunner and Benjamin Hessler. Heinrich Ambrosch will executive produce the series for Austria's Satel Film and Moritz Polter for Bavaria Fiction in Germany. ZDF Enterprises is handling international sales for the project. Casting is under way.

Freud will be Netflix's first original drama out of Austria, following the streamer's success with German mystery series Dark, which Netflix recently greenlighted for a second series. Netflix also signed an exclusive multiyear deal with Dark creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, its first such overall deal in Europe.