Zodiac producers bringing true tale of a Nazi serial killer to big screen

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Mythology Entertainment’s Brad Fischer and James Vanderbilt, producers on David Fincher’s ZODIAC (which Vanderbilt also wrote) are developing BLACKOUT, based on the true story of a serial killer in 1940-1941 in Nazi Germany.

The picture is based on Scott Andrew Selby’s “A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin: The Chilling True Story of the S-Bahn Murderer”, which documents the chilling tale of Paul Ogorzow, who used his position in the Nazi party to commit a series of heinous slayings.

Here’s the official synopsis of Selby’s book:

For all appearances, Paul Ogorzow was a model German. An employed family man, party member, and sergeant in the infamous Brownshirts, he had worked his way up in the Berlin railroad from a manual laborer laying track to assistant signalman. But he also had a secret need to harass and frighten women. Then he was given a gift from the Nazi high command.

Due to Allied bombing raids, a total blackout was instituted throughout Berlin, including on the commuter trains — trains often used by women riding home alone from the factories.

Under cover of darkness and with a helpless flock of victims to choose from, Ogorzow’s depredations grew more and more horrific. He escalated from simply frightening women to physically attacking them, eventually raping and murdering them. Beginning in September 1940, he started casually tossing their bodies off the moving train. Though the Nazi party tried to censor news of the attacks, the women of Berlin soon lived in a state of constant fear.

It was up to Wilhelm Lüdtke, head of the Berlin police’s serious crimes division, to hunt down the madman in their midst. For the first time, the gripping full story of Ogorzow’s killing spree and Lüdtke’s relentless pursuit is told in dramatic detail.

Sounds like rather cheery subject matter, wouldn’t you say?!

Mark Hogan will adapt the book for Mythology. No director has been attached yet.