Wednesday, January 27, 2010

BBC 'planning six more Wallanders'

More episodes of Swedish detective drama – including three original stories – thought to be in the pipeline
Ben Dowell, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 January 2010

Left - Kenneth Branagh in Wallander. Photograph: BBC

The BBC is understood to be planning to commission six more episodes of its critically acclaimed Kenneth Branagh detective drama Wallander, including three original scripts not adapted from Henning Mankell's novels.

Three new stories with original plots created for BBC1 are likely to be the next tranche of Wallander films to be made, according to a senior production source.

It is thought the original screenplays will be developed from existing Mankell short stories and are not likely to be written by the Swedish author.

BBC1 has so fair aired six 90-minute Wallander films, all based on Mankell's novels, which are set in and around the small town of Ystad in southern Sweden.

The three remaining books the BBC has not yet adapted – The Dogs of Riga, The White Lioness, and The Pyramid – are likely to be filmed after the three original stories are filmed and they are likely to complete the series for good, taking the tally to 12.

Filming depends on Branagh's availability, according to the production source, and it is not yet clear whether Mankell will be involved in the adaptations.

A 10th Wallander novel, The Worried Man, was published last year in Sweden – 10 years after the detective's last appearance – with an English translation expected by 2011.

Mankell has said that this will be the last Wallander book and under the BBC's current plans this will not be adapted.
More at The Guardian.

1 comment:

Vanda Symon said...

Fantastic. I loved this series when it was on the telly last year.