Netflix once again surprised us yesterday when it dropped the next instalment of the Bordertown saga – subtitled The Mural Murders.
Once again the fabulous Ville Virtanen stars as Kari Sorjonen. But is this the start of a new series?
The short answer is no. The Mural Murders is a one-off, feature-length instalment, first shown on YLE in its native Finland. It follows three successful series of the show.
The offficial billing for the feature-length drama says: “Kari Sorjonen is chasing his arch-enemy Lasse Maasalo. The movie is set against the backdrop of a social media voting contest in which people have voted on without whom the country would be better off. When three of the most-voted people disappear, Sorjonen is asked to come back to work to investigate the hate crimes.”
The Mural Murders was originally released in Finland in cinemas, but was sold internationally to Netflix.
The question is now though, is whether there will be any more.
A spokesperson for Helsinki-based production company Fisher King Oy told The Killing Times: “We originally planned for Sorjonen to be there seasons – that was the whole story arc.
“When that finished that was the end of that era. But because of fans requesting more, we made the decision two years ago that we’d like to try and make a feature film.
“We were looking at TV series that had made a successful jump into feature films- Downtown Abbey, for instance – and thought this would be something we could be able to do.
“And we knew YLE was not going to be ordering a fourth season of Bordertown, but we thought we could the idea of the feature film. We were very pleased with it and the reaction to it from the fans here in Finland was great.”
So will this be the way to go for Bordertown in the future?
“We would love to make a new, next feature film but that depends on the reaction of the fans and what Netflix and YLE think about it.”
Watch this space…
Bordertown: The Mural Murders is now streaming on Netflix
The Killing Times 