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In August 2024, three dates of Taylor Swift’s epic global “Eras” tour were canceled in Vienna after authorities were warned of a terrorist plot.
The in-depth story of this planned jihadist attack — which was thwarted
by Austrian authorities, thanks in part to a tip-off from U.S. intelligence — is now the subject of a high-profile doc working-titled “Taylor Swift Wien,” being co-directed by Andreas Pichler (“Tesla Files,” “The Milk System”) and Veronika Kaserer (“Hunt for the Mafia – The ‘Ndrangheta in Germany”). “Wien” is the German word for Vienna.
“Taylor Swift Wien,” per its synopsis, will juxtapose “two vastly different youth subcultures: the inclusive, empowered world of the Swifties and a realm of toxic masculinity, fueled by online radicalization and a desperate need for validation.”
That realm prompted two male teenagers to devise a plot, using explosives and other weapons, with which they reportedly intended to kill as many Taylor Swift concert attendees as possible. The Vienna events were expected to draw more than 200,000 fans from across the world to the Austrian capital’s Ernst Happel Stadium.
Georg Tschurtschenthaler, chief creative officer at German’s Beetz Brothers — which is co-producing the doc with Austria’s Markand Media — tells Variety the doc will show the inside story of this failed terrorist attack from several points of view. One is a “ticking clock” thriller of how the secret services, including the CIA, the U.K.’s MI5, and Austria and Germany’s agencies, managed to prevent the attack.
The doc’s other principal storyline delves into the Swiftie community in Vienna. “We are following three female characters for whom, when they learn that the concert has been canceled, it was, of course, a shock,” Tschurtschenthaler said. In what becomes a female empowerment storyline, they organize psychological support for their fellow fans, getting in touch with the Austrian police and even meeting with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and members of the country’s secret services.
The third narrative element of “Taylor Swift Wien” is the main perpetrator, the then 19-year-old Austrian citizen of North Macedonian descent known only as Beran A., who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State. He “had been kind of radicalized through TikTok,” said Tschurtschenthaler, who noted: “There is a new generation of young Islamic terrorists that is growing worldwide who are steeped in social media and different from the old terrorists trained in Al Qaeda camps.”
“Taylor Swift Wien” will therefore be a mix of genres, combining “ticking clock thriller, female empowerment of the fans and the depiction of the new Muslim manosphere” as a form of revenge against Western liberalism and feminism, Tschurtschenthaler noted. The producer said Beetz Brothers have made Swift’s management aware that this doc is being made.
The distribution plan is for “Taylor Swift Wien” to air on German broadcaster ZDF in October 2027 followed by an international rollout.
Swift cautiously waited two weeks to issue her first statement after the Vienna Aug. 8-10 concerts had been canceled, calling it “devastating” in an Aug. 21 Instagram post commemorating the end of the tour’s European leg.
“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” Swift added. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she continued, noting: “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to.”
