Bridge producers announce latest project – an adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s Beartown

As readers of this site will know, I like to keep a close eye on what’s happening in Scandinavia and the Nordic countries because they’re regularly coming up with oustanding drama, especially in the crime genre. One of the more notable production companies in Sweden, Filmlance, can number The Bridge and Beck as two of its international hits, and now news reaches us it has acquired the rights to a new novel, which sounds like it could be sure-fire hit. Fredrik Backman’s latest novel Beartown is the story in question. So what’s it all about?

This from the Simon And Schuster website:

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain.

Then this from Filmlance itself:

Fredrik Backman (b. 1981), made his literary debut in 2012 with the global sensation A Man Called Ove. To date Fredrik Backman’s novels have sold more than 5 million copies in 43 languages, and the film adaptation of A Man Called Ove has been nominated for two Academy Awards. Beartown will be the first TV-series based on his novels.

So we have hockey, one of Scandinavia’s most popular sports, and a violent act. It sounds as though it has similarities (well, the hockey, at least) with Angelby, and even a crime-tinged, hockey version of Friday Night Lights. Sounds intriguing…

More news as I get it.