‘The Scream’ Set for Thriller Series Adaptation at Humanoids’ Skyverse Nordic (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy
·2 min read
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“The Scream” (“Le Cri”), the first book of Nicolas Beuglet’s best-selling trilogy, is being developed into a six-part epic thriller by Stockholm-based production company Skyverse Nordic.

Launched earlier this year as part of Humanoids Group, Skyverse Nordic is led by drama executive Patrick Nebout and aims to create high-end Nordic and European drama projects.

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The banner is now seeking French and international co-production partners for the one-hour series, and is seeking to attach prominent directing and writing talent to the project.

“The Scream” is being penned in a writers’ room by a topnotch French-Swedish team of creative producers, including Henrik Jansson-Schweizer (“The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared”; “Midnight Sun”), Guillaume Lubrano (“The Cell”) and Nebout.

The book trilogy, which has sold more than 600,000 copies since being published in 2015, opens in a psychiatric hospital in Oslo, where a patient is found strangled to death, his mouth open in a silent scream. Inspector Sarah Geringen immediately realizes there’s something unsettling about the case and embarks on a chilling adventure from Oslo to Paris to the Ascension Islands along with French investigative journalist Christopher Clarence.

“’The Scream’ starts off as a creepy Nordic Noir, but soon morphs into something that’s more epic in terms of genre — and more international — as the action moves from Norway, to Paris and the South Atlantic,” said Nebout.

“The narrative mixes conspiracy and chilling adventure with ‘Da Vinci Code vibes.’ But in addition to all that, it’s a story that makes you reflect on the things that really matter — like where we come from, where we’re going and how, morally and spiritually, we want to get there,” Nebout added.

Beuglet, who has a background in journalism, said that “The Scream” is partly inspired by real events, in particular a U.S. research program into mind control conducted by the CIA and FBI between the 1950s and 1970s.

“Most of the tests were conducted on unwitting citizens, who were administered experimental drugs and chemicals provoking amnesia, paralysis, and states of permanent confusion,” Beuglet had said in a 2016 interview. “These experiments were carried out in institutions around the world… As a rule, all of my fictions start off with actual fact. A large part of my career has been spent investigating, digging-up and cross-checking information.”

The book trilogy also comprises “The Alliance “(“Complot”) and “Devil’s Island” (“L’Ile du Diable”). All novels are published by Paris-based XO Editions.

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