How much more Scandinavian content is there to remake?

10 May 2012 Rob Buckley French TV, International TV, Nordic TV, UK TV, US TV 1 Comment

The Bridge

So today’s news brings us not one but two Scandinavian crime remakes. First, we have the US’s Lifetime channel remaking Denmark’s Lulu and Leon, which sees a woman take over her husband’s criminal empire when he is put behind bars.

We also now have Sky Atlantic co-producing a remake [subscription required] with Kudos and France’s Canal+ of Sweden and Denmark’s The Bridge. Presumably it’s going to be The Chunnel/Le tunnel sous la Manche) and have exciting cultural clashes in both French and English between the reserved, rules-bound English detective and the more rules-free, salt of the earth French detective (Jean-Hugues Anglade from Canal+’s Braquo gets my vote).

There’s already quite a platter of English-language remakes of Scandinavian shows now, particularly in the US, what with The Killing already on its second season on AMC, Those Who Kill being remade by A&E, NBC remaking Borgen and so on.

Is there much left? Does anyone know? Any predictions on what the next remake will be, those who know?

Author

  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

    View all posts

Related Articles