‘Partisan’ to premiere on Viaplay in August

The Swedish five-part drama Partisan will premiere on August 16th on the streaming service Viaplay. In the title roles we see Johan Rheborg and Chernobyl and Westworld star Fares Fares, who also serves as creative producer on the show.

In Partisan, Johnny (Fares Fares) finds himself in Jordnära, a secluded Swedish village home to an idyllic community – at least on the surface. He befriends Nicole and Maria, two teenage foster children. During the summer, Johnny gets more and more involved in the girls’ situation and finds his focus straying from his main mission. But who is he really, and what is his agenda?

Partisan is directed by Amir Chamdin and produced by Johanna Wennerberg for Warner Bros. Hans Jörnlind, Anna Platt, Fares Fares and Amir Chamdin are among the series’ writers.

The weekly Norwegian bestseller lists

Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ The Search for the Last Dinosaur is No. 1 also this week on the official weekly bestseller list for hardcovers in Norway. Jo Nesbø’s Knife meanwhile comes in at No. 3 on the paperback list, followed by Jørn Lier Horst’s The Inner Darkness at No. 4, and Stefan Ahnhem’s just published X Ways to Die at No. 10. Stina Jackson’s The Last Snow is No. 10 on the e-book list, while Hedvig Montgomery’s The Adolescent Years is No. 10 in nonfiction.

‘Beartown’ premieres this fall across HBO Europe

The highly anticipated series Beartown will premiere across all of HBO Europe during the fall of 2020. The five-part Swedish drama is based on the bestselling novel of the same name, written by internationally acclaimed author Fredrik Backman, who also serves as executive producer of the show.

The small town Beartown is slowly losing ground to the ever-encroaching trees surrounding it. The local hero and former hockey star Peter comes home to Beartown to build the junior team and secure the town’s future. Carrying the entire town’s hopes on their shoulders is a heavy burden for Beartown’s boys. When the team’s young star is accused of a horrible act, it leaves the town in chaos, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, the courage it takes for an individual to go against the group and the consequences of how we raise our children.

The series is directed by Peter Grönlund, and written by Anders Weidemann, Antonia Pyk and Linn Gottfridsson. Filmlance, part of Endemol Shine Group, is producing. Starring in leading roles are Ulf Stenberg, Aliette Opheim, Tobias Zilliacus, Miriam Benthe and Oliver Dufaker. Executive producers are also Tor Jonasson and Sophie Smirnakos.

‘The Wolf and the Watchman’ finalist for Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar in France

Niklas Natt och Dag's debut novel The Wolf and the Watchman is one of two finalist titles vying for the coveted crime fiction award Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar in France, in the category of translated fiction. It's now up to the readers to vote for the ultimate winner before the end of July. The winner will be announced in September.

‘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).