According to Variety, Banijai Rights will bring the upcoming Sandi-Noir crime thriller series Wisting to the market at this year’s MipTV. The series is based on Jørn Lier Horst’s best selling novels Hulemannen (The Caveman) and Jakthundene (The Hunting Dogs). Wisting was co-created by Kathrine Valen Zeiner (Kick it!) and director Trygve Allister Diesen (The Third Eye) and follows homicide detective William Wisting (Sven Nordin) in his hunt for a dangerous American serial killer. Wisting’s daughter Line, who is an investigative journalist, is looking for clues that will lead her into the killer’s path. Things will take a turn when Wisting is confronted with a skeleton from his past and he becomes the inspected.
“Wisting combines the best of Scandinavian scripted series; cinematic visuals, in-depth characters, and narrative tension, then mixes it with the star talent and the finish of a U.S. series. What is particularly interesting about Wisting is that, due to its main characters, the narrative is authentically trans-Atlantic. This really sets the series apart as it’s not something that has been tackled on this scale before,” Chris Stewart, commercial director, scripted, at Banijay Rights told Variety.
Furthermore, according to Stewart, the English language used in the script is natural and not forced. This allows the series to be more familiar and accessible, and they hope it “will open up Nordic drama to a new audience that may have previously felt uncomfortable with non-English language productions. This will, no doubt, have an impact in the U.S. in particular, where key players are starting to be more accepting of non-U.S. produced content,” Stewart told Variety.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 10-part thriller was commissioned by Scandinavian broadcaster Modern Times Group (MTG) for its Viaplay digital streaming service and Norwegian free-to-air network TV3, together with German public broadcaster ARD. Banijay Rights is handling international sales for the series. The show’s producers are Cinenord Drama and Denmark’s Good Company Films. The show is written by Diesen and Kathrine Valen Zeiner and according to The Hollywood Reporter is anticipated to be the biggest drama series produced in Norway. According to Variety, Wisting world premieres on the Norwegian SVOD platform Viaplay on April 11.