While in production with the $16.8m (Eu10.7m) Millennium Trilogy from the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson's novels, Swedish production outfit Yellow Bird has financed a package of 13 Henning Mankell thrillers, which will begin shooting at Ystad in southern Sweden during the summer.

Swedish actor Krister Henriksson will star as detective inspector Kurt Wallander in the $33.5m (Eu21.3m) production. He also played the role of the lonely and slightly overweight, but excellent, crime investigator in the first selection of 13 Mankell movies which Yellow Bird made between 2005-2006.

'I am looking very much forward to the new series of films. With the experiences from last time, they offer an excellent opportunity to develop both the Wallander character and the different plots,' said Henriksson.

'The Wallander project is a strong backbone of Yellow Bird's local and international success,' added CEO Patrick Svensk, concern director of Zodiac Television, which recently purchased the company.

Ole Søndberg will executive produce the films for Yellow Bird, with participation of Swedish commercial broadcaster, TV4, Germany's ARD-Degeto and Swedish regional film centre, Film i Skåne, which will host the production wrapping in 2009.

The first feature will be theatrically released during the spring of 2009, while Swedish major, Svensk Filmindustri, will launch the remaining 12 on DVD. Based on new Mankell stories, they will all be aired by TV4 and Canal+.

Published both in the UK and the US, the Wallander prize-winning mysteries have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. The BBC is currently preparing to film three of the novels with Kenneth Branagh in the lead.

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