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PRODUCTION USA / Norway

While Headhunters chases records, Scorsese prepares to build The Snowman

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After ten weeks on the Norwegian charts, the first screen adaption of Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's thrillers, Morten Tyldum's Headhunters [+see also:
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, has taken 540,000 admissions, to become this year's best-grossing local production. While the Aksel Henie-starrer is now heading for Sweden (for a November 4 release), Nordisk Film Distribusjon AS is preparing the Norwegian launch of Magnus Marten's Jackpot, based on an idea by Nesbø, on December 2.

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Meanwhile, according to American trades, US director Martin Scorsese is in final negotiations with UK production outfit, Working Title, to bring Nesbø's most famous character, the Oslo private detective Harry Hole, to the screen. After his documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, and his Hugo family adventure, Scorsese will direct The Snowman, from a script by US writer Matthew Carnahan.

When the seventh novel in the Hole series was published in the US, it went straight to No 10 on the New York Times' bestseller list. It follows the PI's efforts to trace a missing woman whose scarf has been left around a snowman's neck; a few days later another snowman is discovered with a woman's head on top - a serial killer is on the loose. Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce the film, with Nesbø among the co-producers.

Also a journalist, a BCom and former lead singer of the Di Derre pop group, Nesbø's books - which have been translated into 40 languages - have so far sold a total of 11 million worldwide, including two million in English. In Norway, his circulation exceeds 3.1 million copies, and the UK he is the only crime writer with six titles on the market each selling more than 100,000 books.

Danish international sales agency TrustNordisk will screen Headhunters at this week's American Film Market (November 2-9). Selling the US (Magnolia Pictures) after show non a five-minute promo real at the European Film Market during this year's Berlinale, the film has now been licensed almost worldwide - "I think only Japan and Korea are missing," said PR and Marketing Manager Alexandra Emilia Kida.

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