Overview
- New German coverage links the 1970 film to this week’s theatrical rollout of a fresh adaptation tied to Stephen King’s The Running Man, starring Glen Powell from November 13.
- Das Millionenspiel aired on October 18, 1970 as a fake live manhunt following Bernhard Lotz across Germany for a one‑million‑mark prize on the fictional channel TETV.
- The broadcast’s realism triggered nonstop calls, complaint letters and threats to WDR, with an official count of about 40 people applying to join a supposed next edition.
- Writer Wolfgang Menge and director Tom Toelle adapted Robert Sheckley’s short story The Prize of Peril, positioning the film as an early template for lethal‑game entertainment narratives.
- High‑profile casting amplified the effect, with Dieter Hallervorden leading the pursuers and Dieter Thomas Heck hosting under the pseudonym Thilo Uhlenhorst, alongside sports reporters Heribert Faßbender and Arnim Basche.