Showtime Buys Dark Comedy From ‘Hansel & Gretel’ Director, Will Ferrell & Adam McKay
EXCLUSIVE: After collaborating on Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, the movie’s writer/director Tommy Wirkola and production company Gary Sanchez are reteaming, this time on the TV side. Norwegian filmmaker Wirkola and Gary Sanchez’s Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have set up a half-hour project at Showtime.
The untitled dark comedy, now in development, is based on the 2012 Norwegian half-hour series, Hellfjord, which Wirkola created and produced with his partners Kjetil Omberg, Terje Strømstad and Stig Frode Henriksen through their Tappeluft Pictures. Wirkola, Henriksen, and Zahid Ali, the writers on the original seven-episode series, will also write the Showtime adaptation. Wirkola will direct the potential pilot and will executive produce with Ferrell and McKay. Described as in the vein of Hot Fuzz and Twin Peaks with a Nordic noir twist, Hellfjord centers on a disgraced Oslo police officer (Ali) who, after a freak horse accident, is banished to serve out his last three months on the force in the remote and strange fishing town of Hellfjord. (watch trailer below) There are no plans for Ali and Henriksen, who co-starred on the original series, to act in the American adaptation. With strong attendance overseas, revisionist fairy tale Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, just crossed $200 million at the global box office, and a sequel is already in the works. Wirkola and Gary Sanchez are repped by CAA.
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