Simon Stålenhag’s Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood will become a major TV series co-produced by Amazon Studios and Fox 21 Television Studios. Simon Stålenhag’s art blends elements of futuristic science fiction with images of rural life in Sweden and has reached a big fan-base worldwide.

“Simon Stålenhag’s paintings are renowned for their vision of a not-too-distant, futuristic landscape. We are looking forward to bringing that to life and sharing it with our Prime Video audience,” said Albert Cheng, co-head of television, Amazon Studios.

Writer Nathaniel Halpern (Legion) will serve as showrunner and executive producer for the series, and Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go) will direct the pilot.

To read more about this project, click on “Read more”.

The Nobel Prize in Literature will not be awarded by the Swedish Academy this year. In the wake of that, a new academy has been formed to award an international literary prize.

Sofi Oksanen and Ulf Lundell are both nominated for The New Academy Prize in Literature. The list of nominees is composed by Swedish librarians. Three authors will be singled out from the voting for a final judging by the expert jury. A fourth author will enter the final entirely based on the nominations from the librarians. Of these authors, two will be female and two will be male. The voting closes on August 14th. The winner will be announced on October 14th and presented at a formal event on December 10th.

To see the full list of nominees and to vote, click on “Read more”.

Danish screenwriter Anders August has a wealth of experience in major TV shows, feature films and shorts, and is the recipient of Denmark’s biggest film award: The Nordisk Film Award.

Currently, August is working on the highly anticipated project A Fortunate Man, based on Nobel prize-winning author Henrik Pontoppidan’s 1898 novel Lykke-Per. Set to become both a feature film and a miniseries, it is the biggest fiction project so far from the Danish broadcasting channel TV 2 and ranks as one of the most ambitious European series to date. Produced by Nordisk Film, the feature film will see its premiere in August 2018, with the miniseries airing on Danish TV 2 in 2019.

Stefan Ahnhem has been shortlisted for the 2018 Crimetime Specsavers Award in the category ‘Crime Author of the Year – Reader’s Choice’ in Sweden. The winner will be announced during the Gothenburg Book Fair in September.

To see the list of nominees and to vote, click on “Read more”.

This is the story of how Gustav’s boy, Master Detective Willy, became Master Detective Leif GW Persson. And how the dream of a life as a great detective turned into a career in studying and solving crimes.

In this memoir, we meet the hardworking and successful professional as well as the husband and family father. Leif GW Persson opens up about the years at the junior secondary school, about happy marriages and break-ups, messy relationships, an increasing alcohol abuse and the class journey he has made. About rising fame and what it brought him, what money has meant and what it means to him now. About what drives him as a professional, and the price he has had to pay for success and failure. About friends and enemies, friendship and betrayal. About his secret life. Persson also shares his views on several well-known murders, solved and unsolved.

Master Detective Willy: the Story of My Career is the gripping and fascinating true story about the life of the renowned criminologist and critically acclaimed novelist, Leif GW Persson.

The official Norwegian bestseller lists remain largely unchanged also this week. On the hardcover list, Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ The Search for the Castle’s Secret stays at No. 1, and is closely followed by Jo Nesbø’s Macbeth at No. 2. Macbeth is also No. 2 on the e-book list, where the No. 1 spot is yet again claimed by Ingar Johnsrud’s The Cross I Bear. Johnsrud also features heavily on the paperback list, where his Those Who Follow comes in at No. 2 and As We Fall at No. 4.

Daniel Espinosa is set to direct Morbius, Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff, with Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto signed on to star in the feature. The project is based on the Spidey antihero Morbius the Living Vampire, a former biochemist who in an attempt to cure a fatal blood disease injected himself with a treatment serum derived from bats and thus became Morbius.

The film was penned by the team of Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, the duo who created Netflix’s Lost in Space remake.

Sony has not dated the film, but the movie will likely be slated soon as production is expected to start sometime this year.

Espinosa has strong ties to Sony after directing the sci-fi thriller Life starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, and is also developing the Afghanistan War pic Red Platoon for the studio.

Norwegian screenwriter and director Magnus Martens is internationally recognized for his ability to deliver stylish and violent action while remaining staggeringly entertaining and savagely funny. He made his feature breakthrough with the slick comedy thriller Jackpot, which he wrote and directed based on a Jo Nesbø story, and has since directed multiple episodes for some of the biggest TV shows in the US. Martens and Nesbø have now teamed up for a second time on a feature film that Martens is attached to direct.

We will shortly reveal the next addition to our select list of top directors. Stay tuned!

Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest national newspaper, has announced a list of this spring’s best crime novels, and on it is Anders Roslund’s Three Hours. The newspaper motivates its choice thusly:

“Anders Roslund and Börje Hellström wrote Three Seconds (2009) and Three Minutes (2016) together. Now Anders Roslund continues the series alone, and he does it brilliantly. /…/ Action and social interest, Swedish everyday life and international crime.”

U - July 22 has been lauded all over the world and referred to as a “masterpiece” by critics. It is now official that it has also been nominated in seven categories at the Norwegian International Film Festival, among them for ‘Best Screenplay’ and ‘Best Norwegian Film.’

U - July 22 is written by Anna Bache-Wiig and Siv Rajendram Eliassen, and directed by Erik Poppe.

Niklas Natt och Dag continues to feature on the weekly Swedish bestseller lists, and on this week’s lists he makes a double appearance with his 1793. On the e-book list he claims the No. 3 spot, and on the paperback list he comes in at No. 4. Jo Nesbø’s The Thirst is No. 4 on the audiobook list.

We are thrilled to announce that Johannes Nyholm has signed with Salomonsson Agency!

Film director, producer, artist, writer and animator Johannes Nyholm is regarded as one of the most original and intriguing filmmakers of his generation in Scandinavia. His incredibly successful short films, three of which have been selected for Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, have been awarded with innumerable prizes at film festivals around the world. In 2016, Nyholm made his highly anticipated feature debut with the critically acclaimed The Giant. The fantastical and wondrous drama won three Guldbagge Awards as well as prizes at the San Sebastian, Rotterdam and Warsaw film festivals.

We will shortly reveal the next addition to our select list of top directors. Stay tuned!

Pajtim Statovci is the winner of the 2018 Helsinki Writer of the Year Award. The annual award, which is handed out by the Authors Association of Helsinki, is intended to recognize writers whose works present Helsinki in a refreshing and prominent manner.

The jury has the following to say about this year’s winner:

“Pajtim Statovci has introduced new themes and a new point of view into Finnish literature. His narratives are strong and original. Statovci’s use of the Finnish language is rich and his metaphors are pertinent. In his two novels, Pajtim Statovci has created thought-provoking points of view in relation to questions of identity, doing so by focusing on minorities and new citizens. Statovci uses art to demolish categories related to sexual identity and power.

Pajtim Statovci is presently one the most successful Finnish authors internationally. Through his novels, he has made Helsinki known all over the world.”