U.S. Version Of Jo Nesbos TV Series Occupied Being Eyed

An American version of Norwegian bestselling crime author Jo Nesbos new TV series Occupied is being talked about, Swedish producer Marianne Gray tells me. American actors and a U.S. director are also being considered for the eight-episode Norwegian TV series, which is awaiting a green light from state broadcaster NRK. Nesbo, whose novel Headhunters is being adapted by Summit Entertainment as a $30-40 million movie, has co-written three scripts for the show with local writer Havald Rosen Loew Eeg. Working Title is separately developing a feature film version of The Snowman, another bestseller by Nesbo, whose books featuring detective Harry Hole have sold nine million copies worldwide. Occupied is set in the near future, when Russia has invaded Norways oil fields and the country is under occupation. Gray, who has just come back from the States meeting with LA-based studios and producers, says: People are saying Occupied has the potential to be a U.S. series. There are parallels with the German occupation of Norway during the Second World War. The question is, how far do you collaborate when everything on the surface is pretty much the same? Yellow Bird produced the original feature-film version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which David Fincher has remade. The Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has grossed $104 million worldwide — $10 million of that in the U.S. alone, which is almost unheard of for a subtitled film. The Stockholm-based company also made TV versions of the other two books in Steig Larssons series, launching Noomi Rapace as an international star. It also created the original Swedish TV version of local detective Wallander, which again the BBC has remade starring Kenneth Branagh. Yellow Bird co-produced the UK version with Left Bank Pictures too. Its own $5 million feature-film adaptation of Headhunters, which tells the story of a thieving corporate headhunter who gets in over his head when he steals a clients valuable painting, played at the BFI London Film Festival last night. Magnolia has picked up the Norwegian version for U.S. release later this year. Summits U.S. remake of Headhunters is now out to writers, and Gray revealed that Nesbo may write a sequel to his original Headhunters novel. Gray, who gave the keynote speech at the Film London Production Finance Market this morning, said that she is also developing a TV version of a series of books by an American crime author. She wouldn’t say who. Many American crime authors have had one-off movies of their books made, but not entire series, she says. Gray, who started her career in LA at studios including Disney, Warner Bros. and Fox, says there is greater desire for American companies to work with European production companies such as Yellow Bird. Its strategy is to identify bestselling crime novel series, and then convert them into high-end television drama, often giving them a theatrical outing first. We are getting a lot of approaches from companies in the States. One American executive said to me, International is the new DVD. Everybody wants a piece of Europe, but sometimes they dont understand that Europe is not just a single territory.