Sales include those to the BBC (UK), SBS (Australia), AXN (Spain), Channel One (Russia), KLB (France), Ale Kino/Canal+ (Poland), Mega Channel (Greece, Cyprus) and Lumière (Benelux). Further deals were sealed with BBC Four for its European crime strand on the Swedish/Danish series The Bridge and Sebastian Bergman (Den fördömde) from Sweden's Tre Vänner.
How and when did you start craving for Scandinavian crime series?
Scandinavian crime has a long tradition of success in Germany and best-selling crime novels are the backbone for the success of their TV adaptations. Then Scandinavian talents on various levels - writing, directing, acting, producing - and the financing structure of those series make them quite unique. We have an office in Cologne looking into co-productions. Our head of office Peter Nadermann goes to Scandinavia six times a year. We were among the first investors in the Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy produced by Yellow Bird. Nadermann was caught by the books. We didn't expect it to take off the way it did, and now, it's become a true global phenomenon.
We come in as early as possible on a project, at script stage. We worked closely with Sven Clausen from DR who has now retired. Among the first Scandinavian projects we were involved in was the International Emmy-Award winning The Eagle. We initially felt it was a difficult series, spread over 20 episodes, but we found a new positioning for it, selling it as a stunt action series and were amazingly successful with it. The fact that we presented it so strongly and sold it to over 20 territories gave us credibility.
Then Sven Clausen introduced us to DR's The Protectors (Livvagterne). We were fascinated by it from the beginning and invested as co-production partner and in global rights. We have done amazingly well with it, selling to the key territories (France, Benelux, Italy, Spain etc), and it's very successful on DVD as well. This European success was a break-through for a Scandinavian-language TV series.
Then in parallel we started working on DR's other crime series The Killing (Forbrydelsen) which had an impossible format in 20 episodes! We initially wondered how we would be able to convince world buyers to pick it up. And indeed, it took us three years to succeed. We first sold it to France, Benelux, Spain. The second stage for the series' success was when BBC acquired it in 2011.
Wasn't it strange that the series really caught fire worldwide four years after it premiered on DR?
BBC provides a stamp of approval. Although we had sent before thousands of brochures and screeners, as soon as the BBC had a success with it, we only sent newspaper clippings with reviews to other world broadcasters. That was the green light for many other countries to acquire it and now, it's become a cult series. Remake rights for Killing 1 were also sold to Japan and to Fox Television Studios for the US cable network AMC. Killing 1 was sold to over 50 territories.
We also produced a beautiful website for ZDF and for our international department to support the series with clippings, short storylines without explaining the outcome, plus a voting system where web users could vote for each character. We found that a lot of channels used it to keep the audience's interest.
How was The Killing broadcast in Germany?
ZDF took two episodes and re-edited them into 100 minutes, changing the formats. It was broadcast in 2008 over ten weeks on a Sunday evening. Season 2 is down already and we're excited about Season 3 that is in production right now.
Would you say that The Killing really opened up the international market for Scandinavian language TV drama?
For sure. The Killing combined with the Millennium films. All series based on famous crime best-sellers are popular these days.
How did you do at MIPCOM with SVT/DR's new major series The Bridge?
We just launched it and it was on the front cover of our MIPCOM catalogue. We first closed a deal with the BBC who made the best offer following a bidding war. We sold it as the new TV series from the producers of The Killing, with the same concept - a long inquiry spread over several episodes.
What's your next Scandinavian crime push and aren't you afraid of a saturation effect?
We will start working on Arne Dahl [produced by Sweden's Filmlance International] in six months. We're doing a step by step marketing but already have received great response from buyers.
With every trend there is a risk of saturation. But because Scandinavian crime series are also based on talent, in front and behind the camera, it's not just a fashion trend. It has substance and in today's market, this stamp of high quality content is absolutely crucial.