Academy-award and Palme d’or winner director Bille August will bring to television one of the greatest works of Danish literature, Lykke Per (Lucky Per), to be produced by Nordisk Film Production for TV2 Denmark.

Bille August
Lucky Per which is part of the Danish cultural canon, was written between 1898 and 1904 by Nobel Prize winning author Henrik Pontoppidan. The 4x53’ series will be adapted for the screen by Bille August and Anders August (Follow the Money, The Legacy). Set in the turn of the 20th century, the story of Lucky Per is one of personal ambitions and difficult choices to make between career and family. 

Nordisk Film’s producer Thomas Heinesen told nordiskfilmogtvfond.com that the mini-series should go into production this summer with a delivery date set for the end of 2017. DR Sales handles world sales. 

Lucky Per is among three high end Nordic TV projects to be pitched at the Berlinale CoPro Series on February 16. The other projects that will be looking for co-financiers are the Norwegian crime series Brotherhood written by Nikolaj Frobenius for production outfit Friland Film (see other story) and the Danish show DNA written by author and creator Torleif Hoppe (The Killing). The crime show is produced by Janni Helleskov for Eyeworks Scandi Fiction. DNA will be presented in cooperation with the festival Séries Mania in Paris.

The full programme of the Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series comprising as well the TV series The Disappearance (Germany), Avrupa (The Netherlands), The Illegal (Canada) and Wars Inc (Israel) was designed in conjunction with experts Peter Nadermann (Nadcon, Germany) and Jan de Clercq (Lumière Publishing, Belgium), long time partners to Nordic TV producers.