Lionsgate has boarded the new Finnish international drama ‘Cold Courage’, which it will bring to market at MipTV in Cannes this April.
Based on Pekka Hiltunen’s series of novels, ‘Cold Courage’ is being pegged as the biggest drama to come out of Finland with Scandinavian streaming service Viaplay already securing initial broadcasting rights.
The show is an international co-production with Irish Production Company Vico Films co-producing alongside Belgium’s A Private View and Iceland’s Sagafilm, while Markku Flink of Finland’s Luminoir will produce the series.
The show also features a number of European shooting destinations including Ireland, which features alongside Finland, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
The cast is led by John Simm (‘Doctor Who’) who plays Arthur Fried, a businessman and firebrand politician who gets caught in the cross hairs of a covert agency that attempts to bring down powerful wrongdoers. Finnish actresses Sofia Pekkari (‘Wallander’) and Pihla Viitala (‘Deadwind’)play the characters leading the covert operation, while Irish actor Peter Coonan (‘Love/Hate’), Caroline Goodall (‘The Dressmaker’), Jakob Eklund (‘Johan Falk’), Arsher Ali (‘Informer’) and Matteo Simoni (‘Call Boys’) also star.
The show is directed by Agneta Fagerström-Olsson (‘Seppan’) and Kadir Balci (‘Marry Me’). The series is co-written by Northern Irish writer Brendan Foley and David Joss Buckle, which aims to capture a reality where fake news and populist politics hold sway.
Global Road previously held the rights to the project.