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NORDIC NOIR

Is Lisbeth Salander set to return to big screen?

Swedish Nordic Noir heroine Lisbeth Salander could be returning to Hollywood. It's been reported that a controversial sequel to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy is set to be turned into a movie.

Published: 6 November 2015 11:19 CET

Is Lisbeth Salander set to return to big screen?

'The Girl in the Spider's Web' by David Lagercrantz. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

The fourth Millennium novel, The Girl in the Spider's Web, was released to much hype earlier this year. Written by Swedish author David Lagercrantz, it was the first book in the series not penned by its late creator Stieg Larsson himself.

According to US website Hollywood Reporter, Sony Films are already in talks with British director and writer Steven Knight to adapt the international best seller to the big screen.

International media were reporting on Friday that Swedish shooting star Alicia Vikander is one of the names rumoured to be the producers' favourite to step into Salander's shoes.

The original Millennium series, which chronicles the adventures of tattooed computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist, made Larsson one of the world's best-loved crime writers.

His work has also been adapted into film versions of the series, in both Swedish and English.

But Larsson's fame came posthumously, after his death of a heart attack in 2004, a year before the release of the first book in the series, 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'.

Director David Fincher's English language adaptation of the crime novel, which was shot on location in Stockholm, hit box offices across the world in 2011, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

Swedish actress Noomi Rapace played Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish adaptations of the books.

Rooney Mara, left, and Daniel Craig shooting 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' in Sweden. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

Lagercrantz is already planning another two sequels to his book.

While many Nordic Noir fans have celebrated the continuation of the series, some – including Larsson's longtime partner, Eva Gabrielsson – vehemently opposed Lagercrantz taking up the torch.

Danish shows take TV world by storm

Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen plays the lead role in Ride Upon The Storm (Herrens Veje). Photo: Mads Joakim Rimer Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The latest show to hit the small screen is “Ride Upon the Storm” (Danish title: Herrens Veje), which is being distributed in almost 80 countries with a debut later this month in Britain, where it will be broadcast on Channel 4 by the station’s foreign language arm Walter Presents from January 28th.

The new drama was created by Adam Price, the BAFTA winner behind the acclaimed drama “Borgen”, which followed the political and personal tribulations of a Danish woman prime minister.

Danish shows, with both exoticism and gritty realism, have quickly soared in popularity beyond their initial local Scandinavian viewership, Pia Jensen, an Aarhus University communications associate professor specialising in television series, told AFP.

Long known for the Nordic noir crime genre, the big international breakthrough for Danish shows came with “The Killing”, a hard-hitting series following a Copenhagen female cop's investigations.

Then came crime thriller “The Bridge” in 2011.

The Nordic noir genre has proven so popular that its aesthetic and themes are now being replicated beyond Scandinavia's borders, with shows such as “Shetland” and “Broadchurch” made in Britain, Jensen said.

For foreign audiences, Denmark as it is shown on television is “an exotic society, something to aspire to because of the welfare state and the strong women characters”, she said, referring also to the 2010 hit “Borgen”.

She added, clearly amused, that it's “as if Denmark is the fantasy land of gender equality”.

Paradoxically, in this almost utopian world, the characters are “normal” people with whom audiences can identify, according to Jensen.

But now Danish TV series have moved beyond Nordic noir.

“Ride Upon the Storm” is a character-led drama about faith and a family of Danish priests, dominated by Johannes Krogh, a tempestuous God-like father battling numerous demons.

Actor Lars Mikkelsen, known from “The Killing” and his role as the Russian president in Netflix's “House of Cards”, plays Johannes, a role for which he won an International Emmy in November.

Mikkelsen “has set new standards for the portrayal of a main character in a TV series”, the show's creator Adam Price told AFP.

Johannes “is the 10th generation of priests, it's a huge burden that haunts him and he lets it haunt his sons too”.

His eldest son Christian is lost and at odds with the family and society, while younger son August is married and following in his father's priesthood footsteps before becoming a chaplain for troops stationed in Afghanistan.

“In the Bible, you have lots of stories of fathers and sons and brothers. That was the perfect ground to tell (a story) about masculine relationships, the competitive gene between men in a family,” Price said.

Elements from “Borgen” can be seen in Price's new venture: the efficient prime minister Birgitte Nyborg and Johannes Krogh, who is headed for the top as Bishop of Copenhagen, are both characters passionate about their work.

“But Johannes reacts differently than Birgitte (does) because his ambition is not within the world of politics, but with a more supernatural power,” Price said.

Thoughts on faith, religion and spirituality are mixed with a complex study of family.

“Religion is sometimes something imposed, as authority can be imposed on our children in a family. And both are dealt with in 'Ride Upon the Storm',” he said.

Price is currently working on “Ragnarok” for Netflix, a six-part Norwegian coming-of-age drama based on Norse mythology but set in a modern-day high school.

The second season of “Ride Upon the Storm” just wrapped up on Danish public television DR, which produced the series, and had around 500,000 viewers.

“Danish producers are mainly thinking of a Danish audience. It has to stay relevant to the Danish public and that's why DR keeps experimenting,” Jensen said.

“Some of the shows will travel and some won't.”

READ ALSO: The Bridge's Porsche 911 to be auctioned for charity

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