TV networks are looking to Sweden for their next TV hit.
ABC is the latest to get in on the trend, putting into development a crime thriller based on the Swedish book series by Liza Marklund, deadline.com reports.
The books were the basis of a hit TV series in Sweden “Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter” (currently available on Netflix) that follows a female tabloid reporter searching for the truth while juggling her bosses and family.
The untitled project is being produced by Yellow Bird Entertainment, which also produced “Annika” and the Swedish “Millennium” film trilogy based on the popular books by Stieg Larsson.
Scandinavian TV dramas have proven hot in the U.S. market, with the Nordic countries serving as a good barometer of what will work with American audiences.
Earlier this week, deadline.com reported that Yellow Bird is adapting another Swedish novel for 20th Century Fox Television, about a secret service agent drawn into a complex investigation with a female CIA agent.
The twice canceled AMC crime solver “The Killing” was based on the Danish series “Forbrydelsen.” Last summer’s “The Bridge” (FX) is an adaptation of the Danish/Swedish series “Bron.”
The British series “Wallander” (which airs on PBS in the US) is based on Swedish novelist Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander novels. And A&E is turning the Danish crime series “Those Who Kill” into an upcoming drama starring Chloe Sevigny bowing in 2014.