The Swedish series Blackwater will be adapted for TV by Queen of Hearts’ writer Maren Louise Käehn from Kerstin Ekman’s best-selling crime novel.

The event series commissioned by SVT, is produced by Stockholm and Copenhagen-based Apple Tree Productions, in co-production with Germany’s ARD Degeto, Filmpool Nord, with co-financing from Nordic pubcasters DR, NRK, Yle, RÚV and support from the EU Programme’s Creative Europe. ITV Studios handles global distribution.

Pernilla August who was episodic director on The Legacy will be directing all six episodes.

She will reunite with seasoned producer Piv Bernth (The Killing, Borgen, The Legacy) former DR Head of Drama, now CEO at Apple Tree Productions. “It’s the first time that Pernilla is doing all episodes in a series,” Bernth told nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “It makes good sense as she had a relationship with the story for many years. We couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone else.”

Published in Sweden in 1993, Ekman’s crime novel won the Swedish Crime Writers Academy Prize (1993), the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Literature Prize (1994) and was sold to more than 25 countries.

The story starts on a Midsummer night in 1970, when two tourists are found murdered in a tent, far up in the mountains of North Sweden, near the small town of Blackwater. The incident intersects four random people’s lives, intertwining their destinies, for better and for worse as events are told from multiple viewpoints.

Top crew members announced so far include Oscar-winning production designer Anna Asp (Fanny & Alexander, The Serious Game) and director of photography Marek Wieser (Darling, The Violin Player). The cast will be unveiled in the spring, just before start of principal photography.

Anna Croneman, Head of Drama at SVT, said: “Developing a novel as iconic as Blackwater into a series, inevitably means taking a huge risk. But with a beautiful script by Maren Louise Käehne, Piv Bernth producing and Pernilla August as director, I’m certain we’re about to make something quite extraordinary. I’m also thrilled about the collaboration with ARD,” she added."

Ruth Berry, Managing Director of Distribution at ITV Studios said her company “couldn't be more delighted to represent Blackwater on the world stage at a time when demand for European drama is going from strength to strength."

Blackwater is the second Apple Tree Productions’ TV series to be greenlit, after Netflix’s supernatural thriller Equinox, currently shooting in Copenhagen.

Bernth who runs the ITV Studios’ backed Apple Tree Productions with co-founder Lars Hermann, has long time production collaborators Anders Toft Andersen (Follow the Money) and Dorte Riis Lauridsen (The Girl with the Yellow Helmet, Equinox) working with her in Copenhagen. She said she is still looking for a producer to run the Swedish production outpost.