Filippa Wallestam: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: The Bridge creator Hans Rosenfeldt has said he is “not really watching crime shows at the moment,” as he talks up his big-budget Viaplay adaptation of fantasy novel Ronja the Robber’s Daughter, the streamer’s “most ambitious project to date.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After changing its top leadership and merging its Swedish and Norwegian production units, Viaplay, the listed Scandinavian streamer, has announced that it will lay off 25% of its workforce as it plans to focus on its core Nordic and Dutch business. Viaplay’s new CEO and president Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, who recently took over from Anders Jensen, said the layoffs resulted from “the material change in the international business plans, and the fact that not all of the content investments that we have made are paying off.” The second quarter financial results for the group, which were published on Thursday, reveal that the robust organic sales growth of 16% to $448 million was offset by combined TV, radio and AVOD sales being down 16%. Operating income and net income were also down for the group. Operating losses for the full year are predicted to be between $83 million and $102 million.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Denmark is the latest European country to push for a levy on streamers’ local turnover to fund local TV and film content. It’s now coming closer to pulling through a bill which could allow for extra subsidies to finance the production of Danish movies, fiction series and documentaries. After failing to receive support with its proposal of a 6% levy in 2022, the government has now drafted a bill for a cultural levy ranging from 2% to 5%, depending on how much streamers have previously invested in Danish content. If passed by the parliament, the bill will apply to global services like Netflix and Amazon, as well as local players such as Viaplay. The proceeds would go the Danish Film Institute and the Public Service Pool on an 80:20 basis.

EXCLUSIVE: Snabba Cash author Jens Lapidus and star Alexander Abdallah are combining on a Viaplay TV adaptation of the former’s novel Paradis City.

K.J. Yossman Viaplay’s first U.K. drama commission, “Rebus,” has gone into production in Scotland. The show has also added some new cast members including “Line of Duty’s” Lucie Shorthouse, Brian Ferguson (“The Ipcress File”) and Stuart Bowman (“The Serpent”). They will join Richard Rankin (“Outlander”) as John Rebus, the much-loved character John Rebus from Ian Rankin’s bestselling novels. “Rebus” tells the story of a Scottish police detective who “finds himself at a psychological crossroads,” according to the logline. “At odds with a job increasingly driven by corporate technocrats, involved in a toxic affair he knows he needs to end, and all but supplanted in his daughter’s life by his ex-wife’s wealthy new husband, Rebus begins to wonder if he still has a role to play – either as a family man or a police officer. In a world of divisive politics and national discord, does the law still have meaning, or is everyone reverting to an older set of rules? And if so, why shouldn’t Rebus do so too?”

EXCLUSIVE: Camilla Läckberg and Henrik Fexeus’ bestselling crime novels are to be turned into a three-season English-language TV series by Viaplay.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — The gauntlet thrown down by the opening stretches of Viaplay banner title “The Fortress,” one of nine series in main competition at Series Mania, is to believe that this is fiction.  News footage plays of a pandemic, then a war; huge protests rage around the world as Norway’s prime minister addresses his nation to announce that Norway is building a wall to keep everybody else out. That’s been done before (Israel) and in metaphorical terms (Brexit).  Cut to nine years later: Norway is a bucolic paradise, Sweden next door a refugee camp hell, until strange bacteria kills fish and then humans, and Norway will, foreseeably, need international help and “what starts as a wall, ends as a prison,” comments Filippa Wallestam, Viaplay Group chief content officer.

Viaplay has found its Inspector Rebus and author Sir Ian Rankin is keeping it in the name.

London TV Screenings, one of the fastest growing TV markets in the world.  But will buyers buy? Fielding a questionnaire from Variety, five acquisition execs from Europe outlined their interests. Questions were answered by buyers at three of Europe’s principal public broadcasters, still a massive presence on the market: Sebastian Lückel, head of acquisition and co-production at ARD Degeto, the production-acquisition arm of Europe’s biggest public broadcaster, Germany’s ARD; Mignon Huisman, head of series acquisitions at NPO, the Dutch state TV service; Sven Van Lokeren, head of international fiction series acquisition at VRT, serving the Flemish community in neighboring Belgium. 

Paramount+ Greenlights ‘The Killing Kind’ Adaptation

EXCLUSIVE: Edvard Munch, painter of the iconic The Scream, is to have his life portrayed in a Norwegian feature film from Viaplay.

EXCLUSIVE: Felix Herngren, director and writer of Oscar-nominated The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, is directing a Viaplay adaptation of Emelie Schepp’s novel Jana – Marked for Life, with Erik Barmack exec producing amongst others.

Sir Ian Rankin’s Rebus detective novels are to be reimagined for Nordic streamer Viaplay, the group’s debut UK drama commission and the first Rebus TV adaptation for nearly 15 years.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Jason Priestley (“Beverly Hills, 90210”) has joined the cast of Viaplay’s English-language series about NHL ice hockey legend Börje Salming. Currently filming in Sweden and Canada, the biopic series stars Valter Skarsgård (“The Playlist”) as Salming and is created and directed by Amir Chamdin, winner of the Best Series Award at Canneseries 2020 for “Partisan.” The show is written by Martin Bengtsson, who previously wrote “Tigers,” which was Sweden’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Academy Awards. Priestley portrays Gerry McNamara, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs talent scout who discovered Salming and fellow Swede Inge Hammarström and helped launch their North American careers.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBanijay Nordic label Meter TV is set to produce “The Journey – 15 Days in Nepal,” a new adventure reality series showcasing Scandinavian celebrities, for Viaplay Group. It’s one of the latest examples of streamers investing in premium unscripted shows.

Viaplay Sets True-Life Disaster Story ‘Roombeek’ As Latest Dutch Original Drama Series

EXCLUSIVE: BAFTA-nominated People Just Do Nothing star Asim Chaudhry is to lead Nordic streamer Viaplay’s latest original feature, a Norwegian adaptation of Gulraiz Sharif’s Listen Up!.

EXCLUSIVE: Streamer Viaplay is once again looking beyond Scandi Noir by greenlighting a feature about a woman in two timelines, experiencing a messy divorce and difficult teenage years.

EXCLUSIVE: Viaplay has lightened the tone of its originals slate with the greenlight of R.S.V.P., a Swedish romcom featuring The Emigrants star Lisa Carlehed as lead.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentViaplay’s next Norwegian original series “The Fortress” is currently shooting in Bergen with a cast including Tobias Santelmann (“Kon-Tiki”), Selome Emnetu (“Luka and the Magical Theater”) and British star Russell Tovey (“The Picture of Dorian Gray”). Directed by Cecilie Mosli (“Mammon,””Grey’s Anatomy”) and Mikkel Brænne Sandemose (“State of Happiness”), the ambitious eight-part dystopian drama is set in 2037 in Norway.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Nordic streamer Viaplay has agreed a multi-year extension to their content partnership, bringing the likes of Kraven The Hunter, Madame Web and Morbius to the Nordics once they debut.