Breakneck stunts: Berlin as location for action thriller
Source: Berliner Morgenpost
Article By: N/A
Credit: Nicky [donated], Anya [translated]
Date: April 17, 2005

Shooting for TV movie "Dark Ride" with Drew Fuller and Tanja Wenzel is scheduled to run until mid-May.

There were already wild car chases on the first day of shooting yesterday for the new action thriller "Dark Ride". A film crew of about 100 people shot these dangerous stunt scenes for the TV movie with 15 cameras at the corner of Zimmer- and Charlottenstrasse in Kreuzberg (part of Berlin). The Action Factory production centers on young courier driver David who lives with his uncle in Berlin. "Many exciting things keep happening to him which suddenly make him the one being hunted," says executive producer Heiko Schmidt.

Shooting is scheduled to run until mid-May and includes prominent Berlin locations such as Gendarmenmarkt or Schlossplatz at the Palace of the Republic. "We explicitly chose Berlin as the location because this city has many different faces and is very international," says Schmidt. Even the Axel Springer Publishing House building was deliberately chosen as background. The stunt crew came all the way from Cologne for the shooting.

This action movie is meant for the international TV market. Even the actors are international and hail from the United States and Great Britain. Lead Actor Drew Fuller (24) was brought in from Los Angeles. In Germany he's mainly known for his role as Chris Perry in the TV series "Charmed".

Tanja Wenzel joins the leading cast as the only German. The Berlin actress has already appeared in "Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten" (German daily soap, literally: "Good Times, Bad Times") as well as in the German comedy "Der Wixxer" [this is not really a German word, it's a play on “Jerk”, the sexual kind…] alongside Bastian Pastewka and Anke Engelke. She's also the lead actress in the new TV series "Wilde Engel" ("Wild Angels", a sort of remake of Charlie's Angels) which premieres next Wednesday on RTL. "Dark Ride" producer Hermann Joha is founder and CEO of the Action Concept Film and Stunt Production Company which is based in Cologne. His company produced German TV series such as "Alarm für Cobra 11" ("Alarm for Cobra 11") as well as TV movies like "Hai-Alarm auf Mallorca" ("Shark Alarm on Majorca").

Alison King fights with the arms of a woman

American actress Alison King during shooting of the action thriller "Dark Ride" on Schloßplatz in Mitte (part of Berlin)

Long dark hair, tight suit, pouty lips: American actress Alison King ("The Woman in Black", "Shanghai Knights") attracts many people while holding a crossbow ready to shoot on Schlossplatz in Mitte (part of Berlin). The actress is shooting scenes for action thriller "Dark Ride" which has been shooting in Berlin since mid-April. She plays Lara, a BKA (= Bundeskriminalamt = German Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigations) agent tracking a notorious hitman. Only with the help of courier driver David Glover, 23 (played by Drew Fuller, "Charmed") is she able to find cover in a hotel at the last minute. Before David knows what’s happening to him she seduces him - with the arms of a woman... "Dark Ride" is the English-language project of Hermann Joha’s ("Alarm für Cobra 11", "Wilde Engel") Cologne-based "Action Concept Film and Stunt Production".