Mikael Persbrandt cast as Carl Hamilton for Guillou trilogy

Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt, who has been confirmed for the two parts of New Zealand director Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, has landed the role as Count Carl Gustaf Gilbert Hamilton, aka Coq Rouge or Trident – the Nordic James Bond, created by Swedish author Jan Guillou – who will return to the screen in three thrillers shooting from this spring.

Persbrandt, who was most recently in Danish director Susanne Bier’s Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated In a Better World (Hævnen), has trained for the part with US Navy Seals and at Sweden’s Karlsborgs fortress, will star with Pernilla August as Swedish minister of state and Lennart Hjulström as Hamilton’s chief, DG. The cast also includes Dan Ekborg, Gustaf Hammersten and David Dencik.

Danish director Katrine Windfeld will helm first part of the trilogy, In the Interest of the Nation (I nationens intresse), which Buena Vista Sweden will release domestically on Jan 13, 2012. It will be followed by In Her Majesty’s Service (I hennes majestäts tjänst), and But Not If It Concerns My Daughter (Men inte om det gäller min dotter).

The series following Hamilton as senior commander of Swedish Military Intelligence  will be produced by new Swedish outfit, Pampas Produktion, with Swedish commercial broadcaster, TV4, and Buena Vista Sweden. It will lense  in Sweden before touring Jordan, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Siberia and other parts of Russia, as well as the UK.

Guillou wrote 10 Hamilton thrillers between 1986-1995, and revived his hero in 2006. Translated into 19 languages, selling more than seven million copies worldwide, they have so far provided material for seven movies and television series, starting with Pelle Berglund’s Code Name Coq Rouge (Täcknamn Coq Rouge/1989), with Stellan Skarsgård in the lead.

Later Hamilton has been portrayed by Peter Haber, Stefan Sauk and Peter Stormare, but ”this will be a relaunch of Hamilton – with a new actor and a modernised character,” explained Mardell, who executive produced the two most recent features and the television series from Guillou novels, Arn – The Knight Templar (Arn – Tempelriddaren).

Stockholm-based, Pampas was instigated by Mardell (previously with public broadcaster SVT and Svensk Filmindustri), Rolf Sohlman (Jarowskij, IFTS) and Lisa Dahlberg (Jarowskij, SVT). The company is also in production with the first season of AD 1790, an 18th century crime/detective series commissioned by state broadcaster SVT.