Distributed by ITV Studios, “Blackwater,” the new banner series from Apple Tree producer Piv Bernth – behind iconic Scandinavian series “The Killing,” “The Bridge” and “Borgen” – opens in premonitory mode with the camera panning away from a falcon to take in the Lobber River’s white water and churning slate grey currents as a supernatural horror-movie chant bleeds into the soundtrack.
The foreboding anticipates a double murder on the river’s banks and conveys a broader sense sluicing the series of the menace of nature itself – both the chilling woods around Blackwater, a village in mid-Sweden, and latent human brutality.
In 1973, on Midsummer’s Eve, Annie, a young in-love schoolteacher who has just arrived in the area, discovers the bodies of two murdered tourists on the banks of the river. Glimpsing a man running away from the crime scene, she will live in fear for the next 20 years, sleeping with a shotgun beside her bed.
The foreboding anticipates a double murder on the river’s banks and conveys a broader sense sluicing the series of the menace of nature itself – both the chilling woods around Blackwater, a village in mid-Sweden, and latent human brutality.
In 1973, on Midsummer’s Eve, Annie, a young in-love schoolteacher who has just arrived in the area, discovers the bodies of two murdered tourists on the banks of the river. Glimpsing a man running away from the crime scene, she will live in fear for the next 20 years, sleeping with a shotgun beside her bed.
- 1/27/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
ITV Studios, Fremantle and Federation Studios, partnering with Apple Tree Productions, Elisa Viihde and TV 2 Norge, will go head to head with Nordic powerhouses Glassriver and Dr at next year’s Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize which promises to underscore the large breadth of current Scandinavia scripted series.
Backed by the Göteborg Film Festival and Nordisk Film & TV Fond, the 7th edition of the Prize, awarded to series’ main writers, also looks set to shine a spotlight on high-profile and on-the-rise writing talent such as Icelandic thesp Anita Briem, who played Jean Seymour in “The Tudors,” and Finnish creator-director Matti Kinnunen, whose “Cargo” was reckoned one of the strongest contenders at the 2021 Prize.
Carrying a €20,000 cash endowment, the Prize will be presented on Feb. 1 to the winning series’ main writer at TV Drama Vision, the Göteborg Film Festival’s conference event and series market.
“Today there is a...
Backed by the Göteborg Film Festival and Nordisk Film & TV Fond, the 7th edition of the Prize, awarded to series’ main writers, also looks set to shine a spotlight on high-profile and on-the-rise writing talent such as Icelandic thesp Anita Briem, who played Jean Seymour in “The Tudors,” and Finnish creator-director Matti Kinnunen, whose “Cargo” was reckoned one of the strongest contenders at the 2021 Prize.
Carrying a €20,000 cash endowment, the Prize will be presented on Feb. 1 to the winning series’ main writer at TV Drama Vision, the Göteborg Film Festival’s conference event and series market.
“Today there is a...
- 12/16/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The Göteborg Film Festival’s annual TV industry event, TV Drama Vision, has unveiled its program, which focuses on sustainability and healthy working conditions at a time of hyper-competition in the drama space.
TV Drama Vision is set to unspool both in-person and online over Feb. 2-3.
As opening keynote, Johanna Koljonen, author of the anticipated Nostradamus Report, will kickstart the event’s conference strand, which is also due to new paths for creative producers, public funding at a crossroads, green filmmaking, diversity, changing business models and storytelling.
“The program, designed as always in close collaboration with the industry, will reveal how the streaming disruption, accelerated by the pandemic, is affecting us all. It’s important for all partners to find common grounds and reflect on long-term plans to create a sustainable industry,” says Göteborg head of industry Cia Edström, who will be hosting the event with moderators Johanna Nunnu Karppinen,...
TV Drama Vision is set to unspool both in-person and online over Feb. 2-3.
As opening keynote, Johanna Koljonen, author of the anticipated Nostradamus Report, will kickstart the event’s conference strand, which is also due to new paths for creative producers, public funding at a crossroads, green filmmaking, diversity, changing business models and storytelling.
“The program, designed as always in close collaboration with the industry, will reveal how the streaming disruption, accelerated by the pandemic, is affecting us all. It’s important for all partners to find common grounds and reflect on long-term plans to create a sustainable industry,” says Göteborg head of industry Cia Edström, who will be hosting the event with moderators Johanna Nunnu Karppinen,...
- 1/25/2022
- by Annika Pham
- Variety Film + TV
ITV Studios has acquired a controlling stake in Apple Tree Productions, the Danish production outfit founded by BAFTA-winning producer Piv Bernth.
ITV Studios previously had a 25% stake in the business, which has now risen to 51%. Apple Tree will now be part of ITV Studios’ international production group with bases in 12 countries, under managing director Lisa Perrin.
Bernth is one of the pioneers of the globally popular Nordic noir genre, having produced iconic shows like “The Killing” and “The Bridge.” Lars Hermann, producer and former deputy head of drama at Danish broadcaster Dr, co-founded Apple Tree in 2017 with Bernth.
“Expanding the international scripted footprint is very important to ITV Studios and this acquisition couldn’t be at a better time with Piv and Lars producing some of the best scripted content in the world right now,” said Perrin.
Shows produced by Apple Tree include Netflix supernatural thriller “Equinox.” Pre-production is also...
ITV Studios previously had a 25% stake in the business, which has now risen to 51%. Apple Tree will now be part of ITV Studios’ international production group with bases in 12 countries, under managing director Lisa Perrin.
Bernth is one of the pioneers of the globally popular Nordic noir genre, having produced iconic shows like “The Killing” and “The Bridge.” Lars Hermann, producer and former deputy head of drama at Danish broadcaster Dr, co-founded Apple Tree in 2017 with Bernth.
“Expanding the international scripted footprint is very important to ITV Studios and this acquisition couldn’t be at a better time with Piv and Lars producing some of the best scripted content in the world right now,” said Perrin.
Shows produced by Apple Tree include Netflix supernatural thriller “Equinox.” Pre-production is also...
- 3/1/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
ITV Studios has taken control of Apple Tree Productions, the Danish scripted producer founded in 2017 by The Killing and The Bridge producer Piv Bernth.
ITV Studios has upped its stake in the company from 25% to 51% and it will become a more integrated part of the production arm’s family of scripted producers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Co-founded by Dr deputy head of drama and producer Lars Hermann, Apple Tree is behind Netflix supernatural thriller series Equinox.
Pre-production is also underway on an adaptation of Kerstin Ekman’s multi-award winning crime novel, Blackwater, for Svt in Sweden and Ard in Germany.
Bernth and Hermann said: “We hope that we, closer together now, can merge all our best efforts and make Scandinavian and international drama to viewers all over the world.”
Julian Bellamy, ITV Studios’ managing director, added: “The global appetite for the Nordics’ very distinctive style of storytelling has grown and grown,...
ITV Studios has upped its stake in the company from 25% to 51% and it will become a more integrated part of the production arm’s family of scripted producers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Co-founded by Dr deputy head of drama and producer Lars Hermann, Apple Tree is behind Netflix supernatural thriller series Equinox.
Pre-production is also underway on an adaptation of Kerstin Ekman’s multi-award winning crime novel, Blackwater, for Svt in Sweden and Ard in Germany.
Bernth and Hermann said: “We hope that we, closer together now, can merge all our best efforts and make Scandinavian and international drama to viewers all over the world.”
Julian Bellamy, ITV Studios’ managing director, added: “The global appetite for the Nordics’ very distinctive style of storytelling has grown and grown,...
- 3/1/2021
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
The Nordic organisation has earmarked 14,250,000 Norwegian crowns (€1.26 million) in production, distribution and dubbing bursaries. The Nordisk Film & TV Fond has announced the recipients of its March slate of funding. The Oslo-based audiovisual agency has set aside 14,250,000 Norwegian crowns (approximately €1.26 million) to back the making of eight new productions, and has earmarked part of said amount to provide distribution and dubbing support. The big winners of the organisation’s latest round of funding are two TV series – namely, Magnus Martens and Lars Kraume’s 8x50 political crime-thriller Fury, produced by Norway’s Monster Scripted and Germany’s X Filme, and Pernilla August’s crime-drama 6x60 Blackwater, based on Kerstin Ekman’s best-selling novel of the same name, and staged by Piv Bernth and Lars Hermann for Swedish outfit Apple Tree Ab, in co-operation with Ard Degeto and Filmpool Nord....
The six-episode crime-drama will start principal photography later this spring. Stockholm-born actress-writer-director Pernilla August will direct the six episodes of a brand-new crime-drama series entitled Blackwater, commissioned by Sweden’s pubcaster Svt. August debuted as a director in 2005, with the short Time Bomb, which was followed by her successful first feature as a writer-director, Beyond (2010), a movie that starred Noomi and Ola Rapace in the lead roles and represented Sweden at the 2012 Academy Awards. Before working on her new effort, August directed a number of episodes of the TV series The Legacy (2014-2017) and her sophomore feature, A Serious Game (2016). Blackwater is based upon Kerstin Ekman’s 1993 best-selling crime novel of the same name. The story, adapted by Maren Louise Käehn (Queen of Hearts), begins on a midsummer night in 1970, when two tourists are found murdered in a tent, far up in the mountains of Northern...
Julie Meldal-Johnsen, executive VP of global content at ITV Studios, said Wednesday that the company’s continuing move into European drama through its various subsidiaries was creating unique opportunities across the continent.
Presenting the group’s upcoming new series at the Berlinale Series Market and Conference, Meldal-Johnsen spoke to Variety about local productions that are aimed at global auds.
“It’s so exciting to have the infrastructure and the ambition and the experimental risk taking that our studio allows us to do,” Meldal-Johnsen said, pointing to the ambitious historical drama “Romulus” as an example. The series, produced by Italy’s Cattleya and Groenlandia, explores the origin of Rome and will be shot in Latin.
“That’s crazy but brilliant,” Meldal-Johnsen quipped. “It’ll be subbed and dubbed into all sorts of different languages and no one will understand it, but it just gives it that sort of flavor and from...
Presenting the group’s upcoming new series at the Berlinale Series Market and Conference, Meldal-Johnsen spoke to Variety about local productions that are aimed at global auds.
“It’s so exciting to have the infrastructure and the ambition and the experimental risk taking that our studio allows us to do,” Meldal-Johnsen said, pointing to the ambitious historical drama “Romulus” as an example. The series, produced by Italy’s Cattleya and Groenlandia, explores the origin of Rome and will be shot in Latin.
“That’s crazy but brilliant,” Meldal-Johnsen quipped. “It’ll be subbed and dubbed into all sorts of different languages and no one will understand it, but it just gives it that sort of flavor and from...
- 2/26/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Apple Tree Productions, the ITV Studios backed production company led by The Killing producer Piv Bernth, is to adapt Kerstin Ekman’s award-winning crime novel Blackwater into a six-part TV series for Sweden’s Svt.
Announced at the European Film Market, Blackwater is billed as a “landmark premium crime drama series” and will be written by Maren Louise Käehne, with Pernilla August directing.
Ekman’s novel was first published in Sweden in 1993 and is set in 1970. It tells the story of how four random people’s lives converge after two tourists are found murdered in a tent near the Swedish mountain town of Blackwater.
The drama has been pre-sold to Denmark’s Dr, Nrk in Norway, Finland’s Yle and Ruv in Iceland. Alongside Apple Tree, it is co-produced by Germany’s Ard Degeto and Sweden’s Filmpool Nord, with support from...
Announced at the European Film Market, Blackwater is billed as a “landmark premium crime drama series” and will be written by Maren Louise Käehne, with Pernilla August directing.
Ekman’s novel was first published in Sweden in 1993 and is set in 1970. It tells the story of how four random people’s lives converge after two tourists are found murdered in a tent near the Swedish mountain town of Blackwater.
The drama has been pre-sold to Denmark’s Dr, Nrk in Norway, Finland’s Yle and Ruv in Iceland. Alongside Apple Tree, it is co-produced by Germany’s Ard Degeto and Sweden’s Filmpool Nord, with support from...
- 2/26/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Swedish broadcaster Svt has ordered a six-part TV adaptation of Kerstin Ekman’s crime novel “Blackwater” from Piv Bernth’s Apple Tree Productions. The series will be coproduced with Ard Degeto in Germany, and Filmpool Nord, and distributed internationally by ITV Studios. It has pre-sold to Dr in Denmark, Nrk in Norway, Yle in Finland, and Ruv in Iceland.
Bernth, the International Emmy and BAFTA award-winning CEO of Apple Tree Productions, former head of drama at Dr, and producer of “The Killing,” will lead production on “Blackwater.” Bernth will take part in a discussion on ITV international productions at Berlinale Series Market on Wednesday, organized by Variety.
“Blackwater” will be adapted for television as a premium crime drama series by Maren Louise Käehne and directed by Pernilla August. Marek Wieser will serve as director of photography and Oscar-winning Anna Asp will handle production design.
Originally published in Sweden in 1993, the...
Bernth, the International Emmy and BAFTA award-winning CEO of Apple Tree Productions, former head of drama at Dr, and producer of “The Killing,” will lead production on “Blackwater.” Bernth will take part in a discussion on ITV international productions at Berlinale Series Market on Wednesday, organized by Variety.
“Blackwater” will be adapted for television as a premium crime drama series by Maren Louise Käehne and directed by Pernilla August. Marek Wieser will serve as director of photography and Oscar-winning Anna Asp will handle production design.
Originally published in Sweden in 1993, the...
- 2/26/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Swedish public broadcaster Svt has teamed up with Germany's Ard Degeto and ITV Studios in Britain on a new event series based on Blackwater, an award-winning crime novel from Swedish writer Kerstin Ekman.
Piv Bernth, the producer of international sensation The Killing, will produce Blackwater through her ITV-backed Apple Tree Productions shingle. Maren Louise Kaehne (The Bridge) will adapt Ekman's novel for the small screen with Pernilla August (The Legacy) directing.
Ard Degeto and Sweden's Filmpool Nord will co-produce. ITV Studios will sell the show internationally and is shopping it to buyers at this week's Berlinale Series market in ...
Piv Bernth, the producer of international sensation The Killing, will produce Blackwater through her ITV-backed Apple Tree Productions shingle. Maren Louise Kaehne (The Bridge) will adapt Ekman's novel for the small screen with Pernilla August (The Legacy) directing.
Ard Degeto and Sweden's Filmpool Nord will co-produce. ITV Studios will sell the show internationally and is shopping it to buyers at this week's Berlinale Series market in ...
- 2/26/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Peter Possne, CEO and producer at Sweden’s Sonet Film is to leave the company after 29 years.
Possne, who was one of the founders of Sonet Film in 1984, said he wanted “to do something else with my life and be open to new and exciting experiences”.
Scandinavian major Ab Svensk Filmindustri acquired Sonet Film including all the film rights from Modern Times Group in 2007 with Possne as CEO. Sonet Film has since then operated as an independent film producer within Svensk Filmindustri.
Possne has produced and co-produced more than 70 Swedish feature films during his career including False Trail, Patrik Aged 1.5, The Importance of Tying Your Own Shoes, Simple Simon, The Hypnotist, Sebbe and current release Nobody Owns Me.
This year has seen Possne lay the foundation for a new TV drama department within Sonet, which is currently developing new projects based on the works of Kerstin Ekman, Henning Mankell, Håkan Nesser and Anne Holt among others.
In a...
Possne, who was one of the founders of Sonet Film in 1984, said he wanted “to do something else with my life and be open to new and exciting experiences”.
Scandinavian major Ab Svensk Filmindustri acquired Sonet Film including all the film rights from Modern Times Group in 2007 with Possne as CEO. Sonet Film has since then operated as an independent film producer within Svensk Filmindustri.
Possne has produced and co-produced more than 70 Swedish feature films during his career including False Trail, Patrik Aged 1.5, The Importance of Tying Your Own Shoes, Simple Simon, The Hypnotist, Sebbe and current release Nobody Owns Me.
This year has seen Possne lay the foundation for a new TV drama department within Sonet, which is currently developing new projects based on the works of Kerstin Ekman, Henning Mankell, Håkan Nesser and Anne Holt among others.
In a...
- 12/3/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Swedish production company Sonet Film has launched a new division, Sonet Television, to produce TV drama series based on work from best-selling Scandinavian crime writers. Sonet Film CEO Peter Possne will run the new company together with producer Rickard Petrelius. Sonet said it had several series projects already in development with best-selling writers including Hakan Nesser, Kerstin Ekman, Henning Mankell, Lars Kepler, Anne Holt and Leif G. W. Persson. Principal shooting of the first series is set to begin next year. “After 30 years as a director and producer in the business it is a privilege and an
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- 5/17/2013
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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