Pop-culture of the Kaiserreich

[Gintoki Sakata]

Rachel Weiss (Hungarian: Weisz Ráhel, 7 March 1970 - ), German actress of Hungarian-Austrian Jewish descent, one of the biggest names in Babelsberg and most popular contemporary German actresses and winner of multiple German Film Awards.

Born in Vienna in the Archduchy of Austria (as a constituent state of the German Empire) in 1970 to a Hungarian Jewish father (whose original surname is "Weisz," but later slightly changed it to the standard German "Weiss" after moving to Vienna) whose family fled from Hungary to Austria following the Austrian military occupation as a result of the failed Ausgleich in 1937 and the rising anti-Semitism in Hungary, and the subsequent collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the incorporation of Austria into the German Empire, and an Austrian Jewish mother, she began her career in the entertainment industry as a model in 1984, briefly went into the beauty pageant scene as the second runner up in "Miss Vienna" in 1988 and then went into acting in the early 1990s in several German movies and TV shows.

She is best known for her role as Eva von Steiner, an Austrian librarian from Vienna working at the Cairo Museum of Antiquities with an interest in Egyptology and the deuteragonist in the 1999 movie Die Mumie, which is a modern German remake of the pre-2ACW American classic from 1932 starring Boris Karloff, produced and distributed by Constantin Film, co-starring with Jan Sosniok [1] as the main protagonist Rainer Kowalski, a German adventurer of Polish descent from the Ruhr area, as he leads Eva to the lost city of Hamunaptra in search of lost treasure. She returned for the 2001 sequel Die Mumie kehrt zurück and in 2008 for the third movie Die Mumie: Das Grabmal des Jaguarkaisers, which takes place in Mexico involving the Aztecs. All three movies in the Die Mumie trilogy have won multiple awards and nominations for the German Film Awards, kickstarted both Rachel and Jan's careers as A-list German celebrities and the trilogy is seen by many as an epic and fantastic German adventure film series, even by those outside the German Empire.

She is also known for her performance as the title character and the Austrian Queen and Holy Roman Empress in the 2004 movie Maria Theresa and its 2015 sequel Maria Theresa: Die Habsburgische Königin, as she was recognized by the wigs she wore in the films, as well as the blue eye contacts. [2]

She and Jan Sosniok married in 2006 and had two children from that marriage, one born in 2009 and the other in 2018. In addition to speaking German, she is also fluent in English, Italian, Hungarian and Yiddish.

[1] OTL he is known for his roles in the German soap opera Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten and the 2002-2005 German TV series Berlin, Berlin, as well as other movies and TV shows, but not as well known as other big names like Til Schweiger and Daniel Brühl. In KRTL, due to the continuing predominance of Babelsberg and the German film industry becoming more competent, he is more famous.
[2] Basically my headcanon KRTL Germany's answer/equivalent to the two Elizabeth movies starring Cate Blanchett from OTL

 

[Gintoki Sakata]

If The Mummy was made in Babelsberg in KRTL...

Die Mumie (The Mummy, 1999 German action/adventure blockbuster) - directed by Roland Emmerich, produced and distributed by Universum-Film AG (UFA)

A loose modern German remake of the pre-2ACW American classic film from 1932 set in Egypt in the early 1920s, as well as an homage to early German adventure films made in Babelsberg in the 1920s and 1930s, up and coming German actor Jan Sosniok stars as Rainer Kowalski, a former Deutsches Heer soldier, Iron Cross holder and First Weltkrieg veteran turned adventurer of Polish descent from Essen as he leads Austrian Egyptologist and librarian Eva von Steiner (Rachel Weisz) and her lazy, but witty older brother, former Austro-Hungarian army officer and archaeologist Franz von Steiner (Justus von Dohnányi) to the lost city of Hamunaptra, said to be fabled resting place of all of Ancient Egypt's riches.

However, Kowalski's crew was met with fierce competition in the race to find the lost treasure, including a greedy colonial official from Ostafrika of a Prussian junker background (ironically played by Viennese actor Christoph Waltz), a snobby and egoistic exiled British archaeologist from Canada who scolds on them for the loss of the First Weltkrieg (Alan Rickman), an American socialite (Ben Affleck) and an alluring Hungarian aristocrat who attempts to seduce on Rainer multiple times (Erika Marozsán).

In the midst of these rivalries, they inevitably end up releasing - and then having to stop an ancient evil from wreaking havoc beneath the desert sands of Egypt - a mummy named Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a former Egyptian priest condemned to a hellish immortality, and once awakened unleashes the ten Biblical plagues upon Egypt.

Upon the movie's release, it became a commercial success in the Germany and around the world, making around 500 million German marks against a budget of 90 million, and won several awards and nominations, including in the German Film Awards, and is praised for its international cast, storytelling and the chemistry between Jan Sosniok and Rachel Weisz. The movie would eventually spawn two sequels, with Emmerich returning to direct and the trio returning in the sequel Die Mumie: Die Rache des Anubis (The Mummy: Revenge of Anubis, 2002), and the third film Die Mumie: Das Grabmal des Jaguarkaisers (The Mummy: Tomb of the Jaguar Emperor, 2008), which takes place in Mexico involving the Aztecs.

 

[Gintoki Sakata]

How do you think OTL Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig would react to seeing her KRTL version of herself working in Babelsberg, and being seen as an Austrian beauty within the German film industry, and being married to some minor German actor who has gone famous in the same timeline? What kind of movies would she do there other than being in KRTL's The Mummy and the Maria Theresa movies?

A still of Canadian soldiers being ambushed by a surprise attack from the Union of Britain's Air Force from the 2021 historical war thriller film Sealion (Seelöwe), a joint German-British-Canadian production directed by Christopher Nolan and Wolfgang Petersen that depicts the joint Entente-Reichspakt invasion of the Union of Britain under Mosley in 1944 from the perspectives of Canadian and German soldiers, as well as the Royalist resistance.

Its ensemble cast would include prominent British, Canadian and German celebrities, both within and outside Babelsberg such as Ryan Gosling, Ewan McGregor, Cillian Murphy, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Florence Pugh, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jan Sosniok, Daniel Brühl, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz and Thomas Kretschmann. The movie is known for its use of practical effects and its screenplay, direction and cinematography. Initially meant for release in 2019 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Britain and the end of the Second Weltkrieg in Europe, it was delayed until 2021 due to the 2019-2020 Pneumonia Pandemic and the uncertainty of cinema releases the following year. Upon its release, it became the highest grossing Second Weltkrieg film at the time, making 550 million British pounds (600 German marks), with some critics calling it Nolan's best work yet, as well as Petersen's since the 1981 German U-boat epic Das Boot, albeit shared, and has won several awards and nominations in the German Film Awards and the BAFTA Awards. This was the last film Petersen directed before his death from pancreatic cancer a year later in 2022.

 

[Gintoki Sakata]

German Jewish actress Rachel Weiss as Helena Nowak, a Polish auxiliary nurse tending to wounded Deutsches Heer soldiers in the 1996 movie Sie verteidigten das Vaterland (They defended the Fatherland), which was the second film in German director Joseph Vilsmaier's Kriegsgeschichten (War Stories) trilogy, which focuses on the deeds and lives of ordinary German soldiers in the Second Weltkrieg, the first one being Der Feind vor den Toren (Enemy at the Gates) in 1993, which focuses on the Eastern Front and the joint Ukrainian-German defence of Kyiv in 1940, and the third one being Meer des Mutes (Sea of Courage) in 2000, which focused on a squad of the Kaiserliche Marine from Deutsch-Ostasien fighting the Japanese during the German-Japanese War in 1941. Each of the movies in the trilogy not only focuses about the glories of fighting in the war, but also the horrors and brutalities that come with it, as well as the conditions the soldiers fought in.

The second film focuses on the Western Front, centering on Otto Gross, a German Jewish officer of the Deutsches Heer from Dresden (portrayed by the one-hit wonder actor turned author Rudolf von Waldenfels) as he leads a squad of soldiers in the opening stages of the Western Front in 1939 as they defend the frontlines against French and British forces in Belgium. Although loyal to the Kaiserreich, along the way as Reichspakt forces advanced towards the Commune, he experienced atrocities committed on both sides, as well as anti-Semitic prejudice among the Prussian Junker establishment within the Heer for his deeds and bravery, which makes him question his loyalty to Germany at various points throughout the film. Wounded along the way in a Communard air strike, he meets Helena, a Polish nurse who was tending to him, and later fell in love with her, partly due to the fact that they both experience similar prejudices because of them not being ethnically German.

This was Rachel Weiss's debut role in Babelsberg, however, through her connections with Vilsmaier and his wife, Bohemian actress Dana Vávrová, it was not until Roland Emmerich's action/adventure movie Die Mumie three years later that cemented her status as an A-list actress within Babelsberg and a household name in German cinema.

 

[McGee]

This would definitely be a meme in the Kiserreich internet:

 

[Gintoki Sakata]

As I'm looking forward to the German Empire rework release in a few weeks, I just love to imagine what Babelsberg would look like in my headcanon modern day German Empire. I'm thinking about retconning KRTL's Rachel Weisz to marry to Thomas Kretschmann (Fegelein from OTL's Downfall), what do you think? And do you think he would make a good Frederick the Great if a movie about him made in the modern day was released in KRTL's Germany?

German Actor Thomas Kretschmann during the premiere of Roland Emmerich's 2006 movie Hartmann in Berlin, which follows the title character, Luftstreitkräfte pilot Erich Hartmann (portrayed by Kretschmann himself) on his journey to become the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare during the Second Weltkrieg. One of the most critically acclaimed war movies made in Babelsberg, the film is known for its unique approach to cinematography, the innovative CGI and the aerial battle scenes, and won several awards and nominations in the German Film Awards, including the Best Actor award for Thomas Kretschmann.

Roland Emmerich is a film director, screenwriter, and producer, widely known for his variety of historical, action and adventure movies made in Babelsberg, including the Die Mumie trilogy (1999, 2001, 2008) and Hartmann (2006), and is well regarded today by his contemporaries as "The Father of 21st Century German Cinema" for his unique and innovative approaches to cinematography, screenplay and special effects, and is the 4th highest-grossing director in the world as of 2023. [1]

[1] TL;DR, he does not focus too much on disaster movies, therefore his movies do not suck in the KRTL world and becomes Babelsberg's equivalent of Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese

 

[Servox312]

What do you think the popular web series Worm would be like ITTL?

 

[JaguarCD]

What do you think the popular web series Worm would be like ITTL?

Assuming USA remains capitalist.

Empire 88 would be neo-colonialist but mostly fail in their attempts to get the US to extend its influence and more patterned after 20th-century American extremism, as well as being somewhat more willing to work with other gangs and loathe Germany.

The PRT and its propaganda would roughly be the same, with the exception that they would probably have authority in more countries, which would fit Kaiserreich in some ways. Don't know the KR lore that well.

China, Taiwan, and North Korea would not be taken over by right-wing Confucians. Maybe Syndicalists do it and take at least some of Japan too.

The idea of the Third World in general and Third World country residents being more traumatized to get parahuman powers easier than in other countries would be butterflied.

Maybe Weaver would deal with some post-Syndicalist villains offscreen in Chicago.

Obscure lore, but the Brockton Bay gangs of Balkans origin would have some Austria-Hungary or Bulgarian supremacist rhetoric before the ABB drafts them into their ranks.

Star Wars was an inspiration for Worm too, so butterflying World War II and making World War I different as in KR would be...interesting. Assuming Star Wars is the same, nothing when it comes to emotion and the dark and bright side of humans changes.

 

[McGee]

Alexei Sayle’s Stuff is a television comedy sketch show that ran in the Union of Britain from 1988-1995. It ran a total of 33 episodes over six series. The show was stared and hosted by the comedian Alexei Sayle, a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980’s. The series has won several BAFTAs and Alexei was voted the 10th greatest stand-up comic of all time in 2007 opinion poll. In an updated 2019 poll, he ranked 3rd.