Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Faithless’ Set for TV Adaptation by ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ Director Tomas Alfredson
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Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Let the Right One In,” is set to direct a TV series adapted from “Faithless,” a 2000 film written by Ingmar Bergman and directed by Liv Ullman.
Miso Film, a Fremantle company, is producing with Swedish broadcaster SVT.
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Sara Johnsen (“July 22”) is writing the script of the six-part series. The project was revealed on July 2 at the annual Bergman Week on Fårö island, where Sara Johnsen, Tomas Alfredson and SVT’s head of drama Anna Croneman discussed the series.
“Faithless” explores the relationship between passion and love through an erotic triangle. David falls in love with his best friend Mark’s wife, the beautiful Marianne. David and Marianne’s love affair has painful consequences for two families.
“Sometime during the winter of 2001, I contacted Ingmar Bergman and asked if I could reinterpret his story. Initially he said it sounded like “a drunken idea,” said Alfredson. “But the longer we talked about it, he thought it sounded both ‘terribly exciting’ and ‘really sh*tty.'”
The helmer said “now it is finally time to make a television series of Ingmar Bergman’s shocking love triangle drama.”
“I have a hard time seeing that I have ever faced a bigger task and promise that I will lift my hat for what has been and roll up my sleeves for what will be,” continued Alfredson.
Anna Croneman, head of drama at SVT, said “to bring together two such strong creatives as Sara Johnsen and Tomas Alfredson, with a unique and at the same time timeless text by Ingmar Bergman is extremely exciting.”
The executive said the series was an example of the “ambitious projects that SVT Drama, and public service in general, will need to protect in the future.”
Johnsen said the collaboration with Alfredson makes her feel that they’re “making the most character-driven TV drama of all time.”
Peter Bose, Miso Film’s CEO and producer, said he clearly remembers Liv Ullmann’s adaption of Ingmar Bergman’s “Faithless” after seeing at Cannes in 2000.
“‘Faithless’ is an eternally valid story about love and jealousy, and not least the feelings that are aroused when you fall in love,” said Bose, adding that the story was as “relevant today as when Bergman wrote his original text.”
Miso Film previously teamed with Lindholm on the critically-acclaimed mini-series “The Investigation,” and previously produced “The Rain,” Scandinavia’s first original Netflix series, and “Those Who Kill” as well as “Dicte: Crime Reporter,” among others.
Alfredson previously co-directed 2018 short “Bergmans Reliquarium,” an homage to the late Swedish cinema master’s work.
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