In the wake of the success of Swedish author Stieg Larsson‘s “Millenium” books and subsequent film series, which includes “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” many would have expected that his Scandinavian country would soon become a hotspot for Hollywood to dig deep for gritty crime novels ripe for adaptation. While it may not have happened as soon as many would have thought — though Lasse Hallström is getting ready to get “The Hypnotist” with Mikael Persbrandt moving — it looks as if 20th Century Fox are getting in on the action.
Deadline is reporting that “Syriana” and “Traffic” writer Stephen Gaghan will help the studio adapt a popular series of books by a Swedish criminologist, psychological profiler and author by the name of G.W. Perrson; Fox nabbed the rights in order to turn the 6 million copy-selling works into a television series next season.
The books follow the popular crime solver Evert Backstrom, who’s apparently a raging misanthrope who only delights in solving a good murder case. Intriguing we suppose, even though it just sounds like a redux of Hugh Laurie‘s character in “House.” Anyways, Gaghan could bring an innovative touch to the series, especially since the NBC-acquired pilot for “Metro” sounds like your standard cop drama, but apparently has been given the multi-thread storyline touch that Gaghan excels at. Perhaps there is more here than cashing in on the success of those other Swedish crime novels that have the attention of David Fincher, but we’ll have to wait and see.