Star duo to write TV series featuring Oxen
Successful husband-and-wife team and three-time Emmy Award winners Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe are working on the script for a dramatization of Jens Henrik Jensen’s bestselling series of crime novels about military veteran Niels Oxen.
SF Studios Denmark is behind the project:
“We’ve wanted Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe to do the dramatization of Oxen ever since we acquired the rights to the books – and we’re very pleased we’ve managed to bring them on board. Jens Henrik Jensen has written some fantastic novels featuring interesting characters and an unusual crime set-up. It’s challenging to transform novels of this calibre from books to a TV series. Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe are a natural choice. They’re familiar with the genre, and they’re inventive and ambitious in their approach to the material,” says series producer Senia Dremstrup.
The current plan is to make two seasons of Oxen, each one eight episodes, based on the first three books in the series: The Hanging Dogs, The Dark Men and The Frozen Flames.
“Oxen has it all. The overarching narrative about a solider returning home, a forgotten war hero living on the lowest rung of the social ladder who is compelled by his sense of justice into a life-or-death struggle with the dark forces of power. It’s a gripping and hugely thrilling story that explores a wide cross-section of society via Jens Henrik Jensen’s complex and nuanced portrait of a veteran suffering from PTSD. Socially excluded and awkward, yet ice-cold and – almost invincible when it comes to the crunch.”
“I’m so glad Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe agreed to take on this project. The Oxen universe is in the best possible hands with such extremely competent and seasoned writers,” says author Jens Henrik Jensen.
Politikens Forlag were also delighted with the news:
“We’re so pleased and proud that SF is bringing its considerable expertise to bear on the dramatization of Jens Henrik Jensen’s Oxen series, and we’re looking forward to seeing the story unfold in a new way and for the enjoyment of a wide audience,” says Sofie Voller, head of the Politiken Literary Agency.
The agreement with Brostrøm and Thorsboe will be made public when the international TV fair MIPTV begins in Cannes this coming week.
REinvent Studios International Sales is representing the international rights to the series, and has great expectations for it.
“With such an internationally acclaimed production company and scriptwriters behind the forthcoming series, and books that have sold well in several countries, we expect huge international interest,” says sales director Helene Aurø.
Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe have written a number of television’s most successful Danish crime series in recent years. Unit One, The Eagle and The Protectors have won the couple three golden Emmy statuettes. The couple have also written the pan-European crime series The Team and most recently Modus, a Swedish production based on novels by the Norwegian crime-writer Anne Holt. The series became Swedish TV4’s biggest ratings hit in twenty-five years.
