Hot drama from cold countries
The popularity of Nordic crime dramas is at an all time high;the international success of TV series Wallander and Forbrydelsen (The Killing),Stieg Larsson’s Millenium novels and Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman,have turned this cold region into a hot development spot.
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he original version of The Killing, which was produced by Danish public broad- caster Danmarks Radio (DR) and Germany’s ZDF Enterprises, has been one of the region’s breakout hits and sold to a raft of international broadcasters including the BBC before being remade by US cable network AMC. “Scandinavian drama has always been there on a lower level but things have exploded in the last few years with a number of good-quality crime dramas that are lighter and quicker,” says Fred Burcksen, VP, sales, merchandise and coproductions, ZDF Enterprises. “There’s definitely more coming out of that region.” ZDF, and its in-house production arm Network Movie, are a coproduction partner on the forthcoming adapta- tion of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q novels. The series, which follows male detective Cal Morck, is being produced in association with Zentropa, the production company set up by Lars von Trier, and Nordisk Film. “I hardly ever read books but during a rainy summer holiday in Denmark, I decided to read the first two in Jussi Adler-Olsen’s series about Department Q. Halfway through the books, I knew I had to own the film rights to these books,” says Zentropa cofounder Peter Aalbaek Jensen.
Lone Korslund, Nordic acquisitions manager, Nordisk Film says that Adler-Olsen’s books are the most exciting she has read since the Stieg Larsson tril- ogy: “This cooperation is perfectly aligned with our strategy of getting involved in big Nordic projects with potential both in and outside the Nordic countries.” Nordisk Film, which is owned by media company Egmont, is adapting a number of books to TV. Nordisk, which coproduced the Millennium films, is producing a series based on Liza Marklund’s Nobel’s Last Will, which follows crime reporter Annika Bengtzon, for Sweden’s TV4 and Germany’s ARD; 10-part drama The Fjallbacka Murders, based on Camilla Lackberg’s nov- els, for Sweden’s SVT and 2x90mins police series Arne Dahl for SVT and ZDF. “Arne Dahl is a new modern crime series and is meant to position Nordisk Film in the league and style of American-produced series and films like CSI, Entourage, Six Feet Under and James Bond,” she adds. Yellow Bird, the Nordic production company owned by Zodiak Media Group, meanwhile, is following up the success of Wallander and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and other Millenium movies, with the adapta-
12 TBI June/July 2011
Forbrydelsen (The Killing)
tion of Anne Holt’s Vik/Stubo novels, which centres around inspector Yngvar Stubo and Inger Johanne Vik, a psychologist and former FBI lawyer. The series is being produced with Monster Film for TV2 Norway. Executive producer Marriane Gray says that there has not previously been much production in Norway but hopes that the Vik/Stubo project will change this. “Internationally, Nordic drama is huge,” she adds. The success of Nordic drama productions means that producers are in high demand; pan-Nordic production company Northern Alliance Group recently acquired Nice Entertainment, which was set up by Zodiak Entertainment’s former VP, Eastern Europe Patrick Nebout and Nordisk Film’s drama development exec Henrik Jansson-Schweizer. Nice is currently develop- ing an adaptation of police novel The Centenarian. Morten Aass, CEO, Northern Alliance, which also owns Sweden’s Baluba, Norway’s Monster, Finland’s Moskito and Denmark’s Gong, says this acquisition is the first step in the company’s drama expansion. “Nice is the perfect Swedish complement to our strong drama bases in Norway and Finland and we see great oppor- tunities for developing drama coproductions across the region and with other European partners,” he notes. Meanwhile, local authors continue to rise up the best- sellers’ lists across Europe and the US and the TV rights to books such as Adler-Olsen’s Mercy, Yrsa Siguroarddottir’s My Soul To Take and Jens Lapidus’ Easy Money will be sought after. The challenge for local producers and distributors will be working out which of these will be the next big hit as well as ward- ing off bigger international rivals moving in to the mar- ket keen to cash in on the popularity of the region’s lit- erary, TV and film success in the crime genre. TBI
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MONITOR NORDIC CRIME DRAMA
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