NENT Group adapts Roslund & Hellström’s ‘Cell 8’ as Viaplay Original

• Series adapted from international bestselling novel by Roslund & Hellström
• ‘Cell 8’ follows multiple Kristallen-nominated Viaplay Original ‘Box 21’
• NENT Group to premiere at least 60 Viaplay Originals in 2022

The international bestseller ‘Cell 8’ by acclaimed Swedish authors Roslund & Hellström will be adapted as a Viaplay Original by Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), one of the world’s fastest growing streaming companies. An unflinching crime drama centered on the controversial topic of the death penalty, ‘Cell 8’ is the second Roslund & Hellström novel to become a Viaplay Original after the hit ‘Box 21’. The series features an all-star Nordic cast and will premiere exclusively on NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service in 2022.

In ‘Cell 8’, a man presumed dead is arrested on a ferry between Sweden and Finland, throwing detectives Mariana Hermansson (Mimosa Willamo) and Ewert Grens (Leonard Terfelt) into a mysterious and increasingly dark series of events. The case soon reveals a personal connection not only to Hermansson herself, but to a Death Row prisoner in the US and a grieving parent consumed by the quest for revenge.

Willamo (‘Aurora’) and Terfelt (‘Young Royals’) both reprise their lead roles from ‘Box 21’, which received multiple nominations at Sweden’s 2020 Kristallen awards. Kristofer Kamiyasu, who recently appeared opposite Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson in ‘Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’, also returns in a supporting role. Additional cast members will be announced in due course.

Filippa Wallestam, NENT Group Chief Content Officer: “Roslund & Hellström’s storytelling is renowned around the world for good reason. They have an unerring knack of transforming social questions into unforgettable human faces, from the horrors of trafficking in ‘Box 21’ and now the moral complexities of the death penalty in ‘Cell 8’. Our latest adaptation is an ideal fit for Viaplay as we accelerate our international expansion.”

Acclaimed for their realism and meticulous research, Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström’s books have been translated into 36 languages. NENT Group and Miso Film have the rights to adapt four of the duo’s books for the screen.

Anders Roslund: “The novel ‘Cell 8’ was always one of mine and Börge’s favourite children. It’s crime, thriller and social commentary all at the same time. An adaptation into a series, or a new interpretation by different eyes, is like seeing that child grow up.”

‘Cell 8’ is written by Dennis Magnusson (‘Box 21’) and directed by Johan Brisinger (NENT Group’s ‘Thicker Than Water’). The six-episode Swedish-language series is produced by Rachel Bodros Wolgers (‘Jag kommer hem igen till jul’) and Karl Fredrik Ulfung (‘Box 21’) for Miso Film, with Jon Petersson as the show’s executive producer for NENT Group. International distribution is by Fremantle International.

About NENT Group’s Viaplay Originals

NENT Group is set to premiere at least 60 Viaplay Originals in 2022. In the past three months, ‘Red Election’; ‘Suedi’; ‘Furia’; season two of ‘The Truth Will Out’; ‘Close to Me’; ‘Two Sisters’; season two of ‘Face to Face’; ‘Threesome’; and ‘A Class Apart’ have premiered on Viaplay.

Recently announced originals include ‘Elvira’; ‘North Sea Connection’; ‘Limbo’; ‘Litvinenko’; ‘Karma and Jonar’; ‘Ronja’; ‘Ida Takes Charge’; season two of ‘The Machinery’; ‘The Prize of Silence’; ‘Sort Of’; ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’; ‘Polish Murderesses’, ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Freedom of the Swallow’; season two of ‘Partisan’; season three of ‘Honour’; seasons three and four of ‘Hammarvik’; ‘The Holiday’; seasons two and three of ‘Pørni’; ‘Hilma’; ‘Billy the Kid’; ‘Sisterhood’; ‘Who Shot Otto Mueller?’; a biopic of Börje Salming; ‘Fadime’; ‘Taylor’s Island’; ‘Kin’; ‘What about Monica’; ‘Trom’; ‘THE KINGDOM EXODUS’; ‘Made in Oslo’; ‘Estonia: The Last Wave’; season two of ‘Stella Blómkvist’; season two of ‘Wisting’; ‘The Box’; ‘The Swarm’; ‘Harmonica’; ‘Perfect People’; and ‘Margeaux’.

NENT Group will produce two major English-language films every year. The company has also established a UK-based joint venture with FilmNation Entertainment and invested in US studio Picturestart.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

Nordic Entertainment Group AB (publ) (NENT Group)’s Viaplay streaming service is available in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Viaplay will launch in the US in 2021 and the Netherlands and the UK in 2022, followed by Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland by the end of 2023. We operate streaming services, TV channels, radio stations and production companies, and our purpose is to tell stories, touch lives and expand worlds. Headquartered in Stockholm with a global perspective, NENT Group is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (‘NENT B’).

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