The event heist series is produced with Germany’s X Filme for ZDF and DR, with Mads Brügger serving as creative producer.

Danish production mogul Ole Søndberg, (Millennium trilogy films, Wallander), True Content Entertainment partner, is producing the upcoming series, with his colleague Caroline Eybye (That Time of Year), together with X Filme’s Michael Polle (Babylon Berlin, Furia) and Mariella Santibáñe.

The eight-part series currently in development, is based on extensive research from German investigative journalists Oliver Schröm (author of the book ‘Die Cum-Ex Files’), Christian Salewski, and their Danish counterparts Niels Fastrup and Thomas G. Svanebog, co-authors of The Great Tax Robbery.

The Cum-Ex scandal is widely viewed as the biggest tax heist in history, which cost European governments an estimated €150 billion in lost revenues.

First uncovered by Germany’s not-for profit CORRECTIV investigative journalism newsroom in 2018, the Cum-Ex trading scam involves a network of banks, stock traders, lawyers, insurance companies, who obtained billions from tax authorities in Europe through fraud and speculations around dividend taxes. The fraudulent trading of shares with (‘cum’ in latin) and without (‘ex) dividends gave its name to the scandal.

Speaking to nordicfilmandtvnews.com, Søndberg who has produced more than 150 hours of film & TV drama, mostly in the crime genre through his former company Yellow Bird, said the Cum-Ex series is a new twist to the crime genre. “This is a story that needs to be told. To do this tax heist, you need a lot of money, so it could only be done by super rich individuals or people who had access to a lot of money,” underscores the producer who finds it “absurd and bizarre that billionaires would want to cheat tax authorities in major western countries with solid systems in place.”

“It's really about greed as a game,” adds True Content Entertainment partner and CEO Sofie Wanting Hassing.

Eybye said the character-led series inspired by the true events, will give both the fraudsters and tax authorities’ perspectives. “We will most probably use satire to depict this massive fraud, as the people involved had extravagant life styles,” notes the producer, who cites The Big Short, The Wolf of Wall Street and NRK’s series Exit as inspirations. “Some of the guys are flamboyant as in Exit, but we won’t portray the extreme rich guys as fascinating and awe-inspiring.”

Søndberg said the series is a truly organic production partnership between Denmark and Germany, among the European countries hardest hit by the tax scam. “Denmark alone lost €1.7 billion to the bast…rds!”

Led by Jan Schomburg (I’m Your Man), the writers’ room includes high profile Danish filmmaker and journalist Mads Brügger (The Mole, Cold Case Hammarskjöld, The Red Chapel), serving as creative producer, writers Astrid Øye (The Bridge) and Pål Sletaune (22 July).

ZDF’s Simone Emmelius, SVP International Fiction is responsible for the series with her colleague Katharina Kremling acting as commissioning editor. On the Danish side, DR’s Morten Egholm will executive produce, under the aegis of Henriette Marienlund, DR Head of Drama.

Production is due to start in 2023.

New Norwegian Production Outpost
Launched in 2021 by Søndberg, Wanting Hassing and producer Thomas Gammeltoft, the Copenhagen-based True Content Entertainment is a talent-driven production and distribution group, with the ambition to create content that matters, for the Nordic and international market. Talents on True Content Entertainment roster include Mads Brügger and writer Kim Fupz Aakeson.

Wanting Hassing said the company has just opened a subsidiary in Oslo, - True Content Production Norway -, headed by producer Renée Hansen Mlodyszewski. The latter comes from Oslo Pictures where she worked as associate producer on Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated The Worst Person in the World.