Sweden’s Dramacorp, the Patrick Nebout-Beta Film joint venture, has come on board “Cryptid,” a Swedish horror thriller series created by up-and-coming Swedish director Daniel Di Grado and French-Belgian comicbook writer Sylvain Runberg.
The 10-part half-hour series will be helmed by Di Grado, who previously directed “Alena,” the series based on Kim W. Andersson’s award winning comic which played at Sitges, and most recently directed an episode of the fantasy series “Jordskott.” Runberg, who co-created “Cryptid,” is best known for adapting the three opus of Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” into popular graphic novels and just co-wrote “Millennium: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.”
“Cryptid” takes place in a high school located a Northern Scandinavian village in the aftermath of the horrific murder of a student. The crime reveals the presence of strange creatures lurking in the nearby lake.
Nebout, who is producing “Cryptid” at Dramacorp, said the series will be skewed towards young audiences in the vein of “Skam,” a Norwegian teen drama web series about the everyday life of teenagers at a high school, and “It Follows,” David Robert Mitchell’s supernatural psychological horror film about a teenage girl who is being pursued by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter.
Nebout added that the series is inspired by the nightmarish mythological creatures from outer space depicted in H.P. Lovecraft’s iconic works. “Cryptid” will start lensing in the Spring-Summer 2019.
Dramacorp’s slate also includes “The Head,” Alex and David Pastor’s survival thriller which is being co-produced by Spain’s Mediapro. “The Head” follows ten scientists who are trapped in a mobile science laboratory at the South Pole where they realize that one among them is a killer. The series will start shooting in early 2019 in Spain and Iceland. The Pastor brothers wrote the entire series and will direct at least half of the episodes, said Nebout.
The company is also developing, through it joint venture with Pampas Studios, the second season of “Hamilton,” the international spy thriller series based on Swedish author Jan Guillou’s novels. Season two of the series be shooting mainly in English in Southern Europe and in the Middle East.
“Hamilton”‘s first season, which will begin shooting in May across Scandinavia and Russia, toplines rising Norwegian star Jakob Oftebro (“Kon-Tiki,”“Below the Surface,” pictured) as Swedish intelligence officer Carl Hamilton who become part of an illegal black ops cell within the Swedish military. Beta Film is handling international sales on “Hamilton.”
Dramacorp was launched in April 2016 by Nebout, producer of the SVT-Canal Plus thriller “Midnight Sun,” and Beta Films’ Jan Mojto.
