L.A.-based Dynamic Television has acquired worldwide rights to the Swedish series “The Pirate Bay,” about the notorious pirate BitTorrent site and its co-founders Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Swartholm.
The six-part series, set to go unto production this fall, is being produced by Stockholm and L.A.-based powerhouse B-Reel Films (“Midsommar,” “Before We Die”) for Swedish pubcaster SVT. “I Am Zlatan” helmer Jens Sjögren is directing, from a screenplay by head-writer Piotr Marciniak (“Everything I Can’t Remember”), with Patrik Gyllström (“Agatha Christie’s Hjerson”) serving as episodic writer.
The character-driven show turns on Peter, Fredrik and Gottfrid, who ended up creating in 2003 one of the world’s largest BitTorrent indexes as a reaction to big business trying to take control file sharing over the Internet.
What was intended to ignite a revolution to let information flow freely, quickly became responsible for the illegal distribution of copyrighted films, music, books and software online. The three co-founders were eventually hunted by the police, anti-piracy agents, lawyers, private investigators sent by Hollywood, and finally Interpol.
“It’s a classic rise and fall story, a tragedy about flying too close to the sun, but also a timeless story of a generational conflict,” said Marcimiak who nourished his screenplay with a wealth of archive material and interviews.
For Annika Schmidt, Dynamic Television head of German originals and European co-productions, The Pirate Bay is “an amazing story of three genius young men who opened Pandora’s Box. They sparked a global digital and political revolution with an impact still felt today, while putting their own lives at risk in unexpected and thrilling ways,” she stated.
SVT head of drama Anna Croneman, sees The Pirate Bay story as “the starting point for the shift between the analogue world of entertainment to the streaming world of today.”
“For us, this series tells the story of how three young men basically changed the whole entertainment industry and makes us feel what the various stakeholders had to pay – politically, emotionally, and financially. At SVT, we find all this exciting and we are pretty sure the audience will too,” she added.
Commenting on his vision for the show, seasoned helmer Sjögren says he will stay “close to the characters, their fears and their drives,” while the “punky nature” of the Pirate Bay venture will be informing the storytelling throughout.
“We are thrown between the driving perspectives – quick cuts between the basement full of computers to the conference rooms of Hollywood, from the offices in Washington via the concern felt at government offices in Stockholm, to meetings with financiers at Lake Geneva and then finally we’re back in the safety of the basement. A full throttle journey infused with paranoia, humor and deadly serious technical, emotional and political challenges”, he said.
The series is being produced by Fredrik Heinig and Frida Bargo for B Reel Films (BR.F), in co-production with SVT, Film Stockholm, co-financing from pubcasters NRK in Norway, DR in Denmark, YLE in Finland, RÚV in Iceland, and support from Creative Europe Media.
Dynamic Television will be kick starting discussions on the show at the global content market MipTV in Cannes which runs April 17-19.
The indie distributor’s MipTV slate also takes in the Australian crime “Savage River” directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, the Irish show “Harry Wild” Season 2 starring Jane Seymour, the Finnish dark comedy “Reindeer Mafia,” Italian drama “The General’s Men,” Norwegian romantic drama “Dates in Real Time” and Swedish hit show “The Sommerdahl Murders,” Season 4.
Meanwhile B-Reel Films’ current drama slate takes in SVT’s “Detective #24”, Viaplay’s second season of “Thunder in My Heart,” and the highly anticipated Netflix suspense drama “The Helicopter Heist.” On the film side, the shingle’s L.A. office is in post with “Kung Fury: The Movie” by David Sandberg, toplining Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Fassbender.
