Anders Sparring’s Knyckertz family in SVT’s Christmas Calendar 2021

SVT’s Christmas calendar this year, An honest Christmas with the Knyckertz, will be based on the books about the Knyckertz family written by Anders Sparring. Sparring is also writing the script for the series, with Leif Lindblom directing.

David Sundin (Se upp för Jönssonligan) will star as the father Bove Knyckertz, and Gizem Erdogan (Kalifat) will play the mother in the family. Their two children Ture and Kriminellen are to be played by Axel Adelöw and Paloma Grandin.

An honest Christmas with the Knyckertz will begin shooting in late January, and will premiere on December 1.

Sofi Oksanen awarded a Medal of Honor

Sofi Oksanen has been awarded a Medal of Honor by The Ukrainian Association in Finland for her promotion of Ukrainian culture in Finland and for drawing attention to Ukraine in Europe and the world.

Sofi Oksanen’s latest novel, The Dog Park, is set both in Finland and in Ukraine. The novel – currently sold to 22 countries – highlights the cruelty of the infertility business and takes a stand for women’s rights to their own bodies.

‘When Crying Wolf’ to be made into a TV4 and C More series

TV4 and C More have acquired the rights to develop Hans Rosenfeldt’s hit novel, When Crying Wolf, for television. After such international successes as The Bridge and Marcella, Rosenfeldt’s new series of novels thus returns to Sweden, venturing into the deep forests of Haparanda.

Piodor Gustafsson, Director of Scripted Content at TV4 and C More, says:

“It will be an honor to work on Hans’ new series. He is one of our times’ greatest suspense writers. Hans has time and again proven that he can create worlds and characters that move people. It feels amazing to have gotten to bring his latest production home to Sweden and Scandinavia following recent years’ international successes.”

TV4 is Sweden’s leading independent channel and together with C More, one of the Nordic countries’ biggest and growing entertainment platforms, it has high quality drama as one of its cornerstones.

Kiefer Lee Photo: Kiefer Lee

Five projects chosen for SVT’s new screenwriting initiative

Earlier this year, SVT Drama announced a new initiative for professional screenwriters aimed at promoting Swedish original stories in the feature film format. The interest the project has garnered has been great – 380 projects were submitted during the first half of the year, and another 153 in the autumn.

In the final round of the autumn selection, SVT Drama ended up choosing five projects. These are by the screenwriters Farima Karimi, Robin Ehlde, Maria Karlsson, Sara Nameth and Gabriela Pichler. In the spring round, six projects were selected: Sara Andersson Marmnäs, Jonatan Etzler, Marioan Hosseini and Goran Kapetanović, Cilla Jackert, Ronnie Sandahl and Sophie Vucović.

‘The Mirror Man’ No. 1 in the Netherlands

Coming in at No. 1 on the official Dutch crime and thriller list also this week, Lars Kepler’s The Mirror Man has now been a No. 1 bestseller for a full month.

‘Beck 41: Death in Samarra’ and ‘Beck 42: The Lost Son’ to premiere early 2021

Earlier this year, Beck 39: Undercover and Beck 40: Beyond Reasonable Doubt were released on C More. They were the first two installments in a series of four new Beck films. Beck 41: Death in Samarra will premiere on New Year’s Day, and Beck 42: The Lost Son on February 5.

In Beck 41: Death in Samarra, a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize is brutally stabbed to death in central Stockholm, having presented the war tribunal in The Hague with evidence of illegal warfare. The Beck unit is under pressure to find the perpetrator behind the assassination before the Secret Service takes over. In Beck 42: The Lost Son, a jawbone is found out in the woods. The bone turns out to belong to the celebrated author Cecilia Eklund’ missing son, who disappeared five years earlier.

The two new films are written by Fredrik Agetoft and Stefan Thunberg, and directed by Lisa Ohlin.

Millie Bobby Brown to star in ‘The Electric State’

It is now official that Universal Pictures has landed the rights to the adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s international bestseller, The Electric State, and that Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things, Enola Holmes) is attached to star. Joe and Anthony Russo are on board to direct as well as to produce alongside Mike Larocca and Andy and Barbara Muschietti. The film will be written by AGBO’s Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Captain America: Winter Soldier, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame).

Set in an alternative future, The Electric State tells the story of a teenage girl (Millie Bobby Brown) who realizes that a strange but sweet robot who comes to her has actually been sent by her missing brother.  She and the robot set out to find the brother in an imaginative world of humans mixing with all manner of robots, uncovering a grand conspiracy in the process.

To read more about the announcement in Deadline Hollywood, just click “Read more” below.

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Fredrik Bankler Photo: Fredrik Bankler

‘I May Be Wrong’ No. 1 bestselling biography of 2020

Sweden’s biggest online book retailer Adlibris has listed their most sold titles throughout the year, crowning Björn Natthiko Lindeblad’s I May Be Wrong as their No. 1 most sold biography of 2020.

‘Anxious People’ a 2020 Book of the Year Award finalist

Fredrik Backman continues to gain the recognition of both readers and critics in the US with his novel Anxious People. The title was announced as a nominee in the fifth annual Book of the Year Award in November, and it is now official that it has made it to the finals.

The ones who will decide the winning author and title are the members of the US based book club “Book of the Month.” The final winner will be revealed December 23.

The weekly Swedish bestseller lists

Week 50’s (December 7-13) top placements are divided equally between Lars Kepler, Björn Natthiko Lindeblad and Stina Jackson. Lars Kepler is No. 1 in hardcover with The Mirror Man, also coming in at No. 2 in e-books. Björn Natthiko Lindeblad meanwhile occupies the No. 1 spot on the non-fiction list with I May Be Wrong, which is also No. 2 in audio. The last No. 1 spot, that of the paperback list, goes to Stina Jackson and The Last Snow.