Scandinavian major, Nordisk Film, has acquired Swedish writer Leif GW Persson's The Fall of the Welfare State (Välfärdsstatens fall) - a trilogy he wrote between 2002-2003) - which it will develop, finance and produce as one or two features for theatrical and a six-part television series.

Swedish veteran producer Hans Lönnerheden, whose credits include 30 features - among them Mikael Håfström's Oscar nominatedEvil (Ondskan) is on board for the project.

Persson - also Sweden's leading psychological profiler and considered the country's foremost expert on crime - just resigned from his position as professor of criminology with the National Swedish Police Board, which he has held since 1991. Two of his novels have previously been filmed, by Swedish directors Bo Widerberg and Kjell Sundvall.

The trilogy of Between Summer's Longing and Winter's Cold (Mellan sommarens längtan och vinterns köld), Another Time, Another Life (En annan tid, ett annat liv) and Falling Freely, As If In A Dream (Faller fritt som i en dröm), describes the development in Swedish society during the last 30 years - 'what made Sweden what it is today''.

The Fall of the Welfare State also deals with the failed investigation of the 1986 assasination of Olof Palme, Sweden's minister of state.

According to Persson he was killed by a psychopath heading up external operations of the secret police - the murder had nothing to with the Kurdish separatists everybody was obsessed with.

'I am looking forward to bringing Persson back to the big screen - his latest feature was made in 1986,' said Lönnerheden. 'Besides we have great expectations for the material,' added Nordisk Film's president of production, Kim Magnusson.

Besides The Fall of the Welfare State, which has been published in 12 countries, Persson has penned seven critically acclaimed and commercially successful novels about police detective Lars M Johansson.

Lönnerheden the three films willstart shootingin a year's time.

Topics