‘22 July’ wins Golden Screen Award for Best TV Drama

Sara Johnsen and Pål Sletaune’s lauded TV series 22 July was awarded the prestigious prize for ‘Best TV Drama’ at this year’s Golden Screen Awards. Johnsen and Sletaune also won in the categories ‘Best Script’ and ‘Best Director’ respectively.

Earlier this year, Sara Johnsen won the Nordic TV Drama Screenplay Award as the writer of 22 July.

The weekly Norwegian bestseller lists

Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ The Search for the Last Dinosaur climbs the official weekly bestseller list for hardcovers in Norway, claiming the No. 1 spot. Jo Nesbø’s Knife meanwhile stays put at No. 2 on the paperback list, followed by Jørn Lier Horst’s The Inner Darkness at No. 4. Stina Jackson’s recently published The Last Snow meanwhile jumps to No. 5 on the e-book list. Hedvig Montgomery’s long-running bestseller The Adolescent Years is No. 7 in nonfiction.

Ben Stiller, Oscar Isaac and Eric Roth to team up for Jo Nesbo film adaption of ‘London’

The adaptation rights to a short story that Jo has written, a high-concept thriller called London, has been acquired by Lionsgate, to make it into a motion picture with Ben Stiller (Escape at Dannemora) attached to direct. The screenplay is written by five-time Academy Award nominee Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Insider) and Oscar Isaac (Show Me a Hero, Inside Llewyn Davis, Star Wars) will produce and star. Jo Nesbø and Niclas Salomonsson will executive produce.

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Photo: Johan Bergmark/Netflix

Netflix original series ‘Easy Money’ now filming

The shooting of Easy Money, the Swedish Netflix original series, is underway in Stockholm. The show is a reboot of the hugely successful trilogy of feature films based on the Stockholm Noir books by Jens Lapidus. The series will take place ten years after the events of the feature film Easy Money – Life Deluxe (2013), and will follow Leya, a young single mom trying to make it within the startup scene and becomes entangled in the criminal world.

Jesper Ganslandt is directing, with Nicklas Wikström Nicastro producing for SF Studios. The series is written and created by Oskar Söderlund together with Jens Lapidus, who’s also serving as the executive producer. Among the show's episode writers we find Mona Masri.

Evin Ahmad, known from the feature film Dröm Vidare (2017) and the two Netflix series Quicksand (2019) and The Rain season 2 (2019), is playing the lead. The cast also includes Alexander Abdallah, Ali Alarik, Olle Sarri and Dada Fungula Bozela as well as Jozef Wojciechowicz (Z.E).

Easy Money will premiere on Netflix in 2021.

Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes among most sold of the decade in Norway

Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ series about the sharp-witted and eagle-eyed sleuthing duo Detective Agency No. 2 has made its mark on the past decade’s bestseller lists. As the official list for most sold children’s books of the 2010s was announced, five out of ten spots on the top ten list went to the Detective Agency No. 2 series.

The most sold titles of the decade became Operation Thundercloud (No. 4), Operation Summer Island (No. 6), Operation Shadowman (No. 8), Operation Sunset (No. 9), and Operation Windblast (No. 10).

The weekly Norwegian bestseller lists

Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ just published The Search for the Last Dinosaur goes straight to No. 2 on the official weekly bestseller list for hardcovers in Norway. The paperback list’s No. 2 spot goes to Jo Nesbø’s Knife, the twelfth Harry Hole novel. Just after it, at No. 3, comes The Inner Darkness by Jørn Lier Horst. Lastly, Hedvig Montgomery claims the No. 6 spot on the nonfiction list with The Adolescent Years.

Johanna Holmström bestowed with 2020 Längmanska Commission’s Prize

Johanna Holmström has been bestowed with the 2020 Längmanska Commission’s Prize in Sweden, for Author of the Year.

The motivation is as follows: “Johanna Holmström (b. 1981) is one of Finland’s most fearless authors, whose short stories and novels with a shrewd gaze capture people’s, and above all women’s, struggles. Her texts exhibit a power that carries them far, both into the human psyche and beyond Finland’s borders. Holmström’s texts move, rattle and unsettle, and leave no one indifferent.”

Sofia Lundberg on the German bestseller lists

Sofia Lundberg’s The Red Address Book celebrates 6 months as an official German bestseller on Der Spiegel’s lists. Lundberg’s debut novel has now entered its 26th consecutive week on the lists. Her second novel, A Question Mark Is Half a Heart, is also a long-running bestseller in Germany. It has now been a bestseller for 14 weeks.

The May bestseller lists in Sweden

Ulf Lundell claims one of the top placements on the official bestseller list for the month of May in Sweden, where his Weekdays 3 is No. 4 in hardcover and No. 8 in e-book. Stina Jackson also features on the hardcover list, coming in at No. 5 with The Last Snow. The title is also No. 4 in both audio and e-book.

Fredrik Backman No. 7 in Iceland

Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People lands the No. 7 spot on the official bestseller list for the month of May in Iceland. The novel was published on May 12.