We talk to “Der Greif” author Wolfgang Hohlbein about fantasy porn on the internet and future Hohlbein adaptations

Wolfgang Hohlbein is THE German master of fantasy and horror literature. The author has already published more than 200 novels. Together with his wife Heike Hohlbein, the writer published an absolute classic of his work in 1989 with “Der Greif”. Now, 34 years after it was first published, the novel has been published Amazon Prime video to the series and has been available from the streaming provider since May 25, 2023.

FILMSTARTS editor Stefan Geisler met Wolfgang Hohlbein via Zoom for an interview and talked to him about the differences between fantasy and fantastic, Hollywood’s influence on the genre and upcoming Hohlbein productions.

“The Griffin” as a musical? This idea almost became reality

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: Then I have good news for you. The series will probably continue!

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: From the start, it was not certain that Amazon would take over the project. First there was Sebastian Marka, the director of Der Greif, who contacted me. He had previously worked with a musician on the idea of ​​making “Griffin” a stage show, a musical, or a rock opera. In the end nothing came of the project, but the idea did not let go of him and at one point he plucked up courage and called me.

I immediately sensed his enthusiasm and noticed that we were on the same wavelength and since I had just gone to Berlin for other reasons anyway, I suggested somewhere to go for a pizza, a beer or a coffee meeting. It became a whole evening. Then it took another six or seven years for it to really work, but Sebastian just wouldn’t let go and kept nagging until I said, “Well, do it then” (laughs)…

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: Nothing. Wasn’t necessary either. We always kept in touch, I continued to study the script and had intensive conversations with them Sebastian [Marka] And [Autor] Erol [Yesilkaya]. If I hadn’t had such basic trust in them from the start, I wouldn’t have allowed them to do it. One hundred percent agreement cannot be achieved anyway. Everyone has different images in their head. And it is also very exciting for me to see what other people make of this material.

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: The new images either have to be so radically different that I’m like, “Oh great, I never would have thought of that” or relatively close to your own imagination. And here both come together. There are some new things in there that I never would have thought of – I wouldn’t have had the courage to write something like that 40 years ago – and on the other hand a lot of things are very, very close to my “mental cinema” .

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: I don’t even know if there is such a thing as German fantasy? Maybe a little more of that Scandinavian melancholy that sometimes shines through. But what is fantasy anyway? I don’t like the word anyway…

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: No, I think “fantasy” is much better. The term fantasy is so loaded, also because of a lot of bad movies and books. A small example: When I started to discover the Internet for myself – about 20 years ago – the first search term I entered was of course fantasy. And I have a lot of pornography… (laughs)

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: Then when I was asked what I write and I answered fantasy, the answer was, “Is that something naughty?” That is no longer the case. I think maybe the German fantasy is still the Brothers Grimm. It’s more fantasy.

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: We’ve always done that. What is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, what is Goethe’s “Faust”? But I understand what you mean. Perhaps the fantastic has found its place in society, on bookshelves and on screens. 30 or 40 years ago it wasn’t normal for the inspector in a detective story to be a fortune teller and somehow ‘sense’ or ‘dream’ the solution – nowadays no one cares about it anymore. But it was always there – people have always had an uncanny need for fabulous fabrics.

Will a German Witcher be waiting for us soon?

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: So of course our first book “Fairytale Moon”. As a series I would see “The Witcher of Salem”. There are already serious discussions and scripts. Of course that means nothing…

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: Of course it has grown a bit. And Hollywood is a good keyword. I’m very glad “Der Greif” isn’t a Hollywood production, then it would have been much more colorful and loud and Emmerich would probably have blown up the Black Tower at the end of the first season. But what has certainly changed is that a lot is possible nowadays. The big pictures – only Hollywood used to be able to do that. This is now also possible in Germany – you can see that in “Der Greif”.

A lot has changed in that regard, because nowadays you can do many things that were not possible before. Take Game Of Thrones: the first big crowd scenes, there were 42 people on the left and 33 people on the right, the rest were shadows and the clatter of swords. In recent seasons you really saw armies of tens of thousands collide with each other. That has changed Hollywood, but also the times when this is technically possible today. I predict that in five years at the latest you will be able to depict anything you technically want – and then there really are no limits to your imagination.

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: When you leave the cinema or turn off the television after two hours and say: “Nice story. I felt well entertained.” I don’t want more, so I’m completely satisfied.

Wolfgang Hoehlbein: At the very beginning of my career, one of my books was heavily criticized for featuring black riders. And so does Tolkien. There were also black towers for Stephen King. There are a few archetypes, we all have them in our heads and they keep coming back. And yet the influence of other authors is of course great: if I didn’t read, I wouldn’t write either.

I noticed it myself: 10, 15 years ago I stopped reading for some reason. I just played video games and watched movies or rode my motorcycle. And after a short time I noticed that the quality of my texts was deteriorating. I just need input from other authors – which doesn’t mean stealing ideas, but watching how other authors tell stories, how you characterize your characters, or how you take your readers to strange worlds. And without other authors, like Stephen King, one of my favorite authors, or Tolkien and Lovecraft – without them my books wouldn’t exist either.