Universal Cable Productions (UCP), part of the powerful US media group NBC/Universal announced recently that they have acquired the re-make rights to the critically-acclaimed Danish TV drama The Legacy (Arvingerne) produced by DR, with support among others, from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Piv Bernth, Head of Drama at DR confirmed to nordiskfilmogtvfond.com that contractual details are being finalised.

In UCP’s official statement, the company said their intention is to develop the character-driven Danish show into an event series for US viewers. Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity), Dave Bartis (Edge of Tomorrow) and Gene Klein (Suits) are attached to produce for Hypnotic. “The Legacy is an incredible drama with a secret at its heart that slowly tears the walls down of this complicated family,” said Dawn Olmstead, Executive Vice President - Development at UCP. “We fought hard with Hypnotic to get this project in a very competitive situation because we believe in the story at its core and it’s on point with the direction UCP is headed. Executive Producer Liman added: “The Legacy features the kind of extraordinary characters that are truly unique even as they remind us of some of our favourite (and craziest) relatives.”

The trend for US - and foreign - adaptation of quality Nordic TV dramas has accelerated over the last two years of which The Legacy is the latest example. The family drama joins other shows such as DR's The Killing, DR/SVT's The Bridge, NRK's Mammon, TV2's Park Road (Lærkevej), TV4 Sweden's Welcome to Sweden and Stöð 2's The Court.

The original TV series Arvingerne created by Maya Ilsøe is DR’s most successful in-house drama series since Better Times (2008). The Danish pubcaster finished airing the ten part series in March, with a record average share of 61% and average viewers of 1.909 million. The family saga also grabbed the attention of Swedish and Norwegian viewers last spring and is set to conquer Finnish viewers in the autumn. The second season of The Legacy (7x58’) produced by Karoline Leth for DR is set to premiere on DR1 early 2015. DR Sales is handling world distribution