Yellow Bird produces the Liza Marklund adaptation.

Danish director Peter Flinth’s Nobel’s Last Will (Nobels testament), the first in a package of six drama-thrillers based on Swedish author Liza Marklund’s novels, has been picked up for the US by Malabar Entertainment.

The deal was brokered by Zodiak Media for its Swedish production outfit, Yellow Bird.

”There was a huge interest for the film at the recent American Film Market, where it was also licensed to the Benelux, Schwitzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Kora and Brazil – now it has gone to more than 30 countries,” said development executive Erik Hultkvist, of Yellow Bird. Nobel’s Last Will will be domestically released on March 2 by Nordisk Film, March 9 in Norway and Finland, June 7 in Denmark.

After the Millennium trilogy and Headhunters (Hodejegerne) bestsellers, the Swedish company has embarked on Marklund’s series featuring criminal reporter Annika Bengtzon, a $15 million (SEK 100 million) project including one theatrical feature and five films straight for DVD and television (TV4 in Sweden, ARD in Germany). Yellow Bird’s Jenny Gilbertson produces with TV4, ARD Degeto and Danish major, Nordisk Film.

Swedish actress Malin Crépin [pictured] stars as Bengtzon, working at a bustling tabloid, Kvällspressen, trying to combine motherhood with career ambitions; the cast includes Richard Ulfsäter, Felix Engström, Björn Kjellman, Leif Andrée, Kajsa Ernst and Erik Johansson. Shooting will last throughout 2011 on locations mainly in Stockholm, adding northern Sweden and Spain, from scripts by Pernilla Oljelund, Stefan Thunberg, Alex Haridi and Antonia Pyk.

Credited for, among others, the Swedish Arn films, Wallander, and the Danish Emmy-winner Unit 1 (Rejseholdet), Flinth will also direct the final installment in the cycle, A Place in the Sun (En plats i solen), while the remaining films - Studio Sex, Prime Time, The Red Wolf (Den röda vargen), Lifetime (Livstid) – will be shared between Swedish directors Agneta Fagerström-Olsson and Ulf Kvensler.

The most successfull series by a Scandinavian woman writer, Marklund’s award-winning Bengtzon novels have been translated into 30 languages and sold a total of 10 million copies – she has been the no 2 bestseller in all five Nordic countries. Two of them have previously been adapted for the screen by UK-Swedish director Colin Nutley, including The Bomber, aka Deadline (Sprängaren) and Paradise (Paradiset).

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