Six films planned from novels by Swedish bestselling crime author Liza Marklund.

Swedish production outfit Yellow Bird and Denmark’s Nordisk Film, which worked on the blockbuster hit Millennium trilogy, will next collaborate on six films from novels by Swedish author Liza Marklund, Scandinavia’s acknowledged Queen of Crime.

Swedish commercial broadcaster, TV4, and Germany’s ARD Degato will co-produce the films: Studio Sex; Prime Time; The Red Wolf(Den röda vargen); Nobel’s Last Will (Nobels testamente); and A Place in the Sun (En plats i solen). Nobel’s Last Will will be released theatrically, while the others are aimed at DVD and television distribution.

The combined budget will be about $13.5m (Euros 10m).

The main character in the six films is Swedish journalist Annika Bengtzon, working as a crime reporter at a bustling tabloid, who tries to combine motherhood and her career ambitions, while constantly being involved in suspenseful investigations.

The winner of several literary prizes, Marklund, who is credited with having revolutionised the modern Swedish police procedural created by Sjöwall-Wahlöö in the 1960s, is a No. 1 bestseller in all five Nordic countries. Her novels have been translated into 30 languages and sold a total of nine million copies.

”We are currently discussing directors and cast, but it will certainly be exciting to take the works of the leading Nordic crime writer to the screen,” said Lone Korslund, head of co-productions at Nordisk Film.

According to Yellow Bird producer Jenny Gilbertsson, the Marklund franchise was easy to stage, finding co-producers and script-writers ”who are strongly committed to the project”: Pernilla Oljelund, Stefan Thunberg, Alex Haridi and Antonia Pyk. Shooting is scheduled to start early 2011.

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