Ten years of Eberhofer thrillers: what has changed for Bezzel and Schwarz

The fabulous success story of the cult Eberhofer thrillers (since 2010) by writer Rita Falk (59) will be continued this week (10 August) with the cinema release of “Rehragout-Rendezvous”. With “Dampfnudelblues” (2013), the first film adaptation of the book series hit the cinemas ten years ago.

The anniversary has not yet been celebrated in a big way, as the two main actors Sebastian Bezzel (52) and Simon Schwarz (52) confirm in an interview with the news agency spot on news. “Maybe it will come,” says Schwarz. “We always celebrate anyway,” jokes Bezzel and explains: “We shoot a lot together, are now doing the cinema tour for the seventh time and often sit together in hotel rooms. In addition, Simon and I do the BR documentary series ‘Grenzgänger’ together. Last week was the premiere where almost everyone was there. In other words, we see each other so often that it doesn’t really need a big celebration.”

Incredible success story

Ten years ago, nobody could have counted on the great success of the now nine films. The cult film series about the Niederkaltenkirchen village policeman Franz Eberhofer (Bezzel) and his ex-colleague, private detective Rudi Birkenberger (Schwarz), started very small. “Actually, it was only supposed to be a TV movie. If someone had told us that ten years ago, when ‘Dampfnudelblues’ was shown at the Munich Film Festival, nobody would have believed it,” says Bezzel. Especially since he was actually busy with many other things that summer:

“My son was a bit older then, but my daughter was only a few months old. We just moved and I had meniscus surgery… The film was almost a bit of a side issue,” he admits. At some point, however, the calls came that the film was quite successful and that there should be another one. But “I didn’t get it with ‘Winterkartoffelknödel’ (2014) either,” says Bezzel. “With the third film, ‘Schweinskopf al dente’ (2016), we slowly became aware of it when we did the big cinema tour for the first time and had this incredible fan contact… The rest is history.”

Success was not programmed for Simon Schwarz either. “No. Zero. Nobody thought that. It started out as a TV film and a Bavarian cinema operator then had the idea of ​​showing the film in the cinema in the summer. He just tried it and around 500,000 viewers were attracted After that, Constantin Film produced the Eberhofer films for the cinema, and from the third year there was also the cinema tour with us actors. From then on it became more successful every year,” he says.

How has the team changed behind the scenes?

The Eberhofer crime cast has remained almost the same over the past ten years. But what about behind the scenes? What has changed there? Were there marriages, babies, deaths? “Robert Falk, Rita Falk’s husband, died in early July 2020. He accompanied us for a long time and was on every cinema tour. That was the most drastic and saddest event. It hit us all very much,” says Simon Schwarz. That’s not all: “Our BR editor Stephanie Heckner, who has been with us from the beginning, died this year. That was bad too.” “Rehragout-Rendezvous” was also dedicated to her.

In the credits for “Kaiserschmarrndrama” (2021), the dog Joker, who was seen in the films as Eberhofer’s darling Ludwig, was also said goodbye. The film dog died unexpectedly at the end of June 2021, as announced on his fan page. In “Guglhupfgeschwader” (2020) the three-legged dog colleague Xaver joined as “Hinkelotta”.

But there is also good news from behind the scenes: “Babies were actually born, but I don’t know how many now. At Pixar, the babies who were born while working on the film are always mentioned in the credits , and the weddings. That’s a very nice idea, “says Schwarz. In general, the crew in the Eberhofer films has changed again and again, only a few have been there from the beginning. Bezzel also confirms this: “The producer, actors and still photographer have remained almost unchanged. Otherwise, apart from a few team members, it was a coming and going behind the camera. I recently shot a ‘Munich Murder’ crime film in which I knew most of the team because he or she had worked for an Eberhofer at one point. That was very nice.”

Rita Falk’s last thriller is finished – what’s next for the films?

Despite the great success of the local crime series, Bezzel, Schwarz and Co. never knew whether it would continue, contrary to what it might seem. “Even now we don’t know,” says Schwarz. One thing is certain: “No new Eberhofer thriller will be shot this year. There is no book that could be filmed. Rita Falk will only be presenting her new novel ‘Plugin Fish Fiasko’ this fall,” summarizes the native of Vienna. Said local thriller is said to be Falk’s last Eberhofer thriller in book form, as announced last year.

Even Sebastian Bezzel doesn’t know whether there are already plans for the next Eberhofer thriller as a film. Nevertheless, he does not agree to any sad tones. “But it was generally the case anyway that with the Eberhofer films we always thought from shoot to shoot. Shortly after the premiere we always received the script for the next film in recent years. This time it’s not like that. I still think that things will continue,” he says confidently.

How exactly it could go on, “we all have to be surprised,” says the Bavarian actor. For him, however, the situation is clear: “The whole construct, the characters, the place – everything is built in such a way that we could shoot the next one in 20 years. Then Paul might be in his mid-20s and a police officer. Grandpa is very old and still smokes weed. Flötzinger still goes to the swingers club, although he now has an artificial hip,” he says. Full of anticipation, he follows: “I’m just concentrating on the current film and the cinema tour…”