The ambitious 8x60’ show targeting the international market is created by writer Fredrik Agetoft (Arne Dahl) and producer Niels A. Wetterberg and co-written by Karin Arrhenius (The Girl, In Your Veins), Anna Platt (Kärlek Deluxe) and renowned video game director David Goldfarb (Battlefield, Payday). Investigate North’s CEO Niels Wetterberg is producing, with Windeløv and Søndberg as executive producers. 

Paris-based boutique financier and distributor APC (About Premium Content) co-develops with Investigate North and handles world distribution. 

Unpunished is set in the near-future and offers a foreshadowing of the consequences caused by the merging of human minds with technology. When a powerful self-improving computer virus threatens to reveal all the world’s best kept secrets, society starts to break down. A group of EU researchers are asked to create an A.I. as the only and ultimate defence to fight the cyber attack.

Emmanuelle Guilbart, APC joint CEO and co-founder said: “Unpunished is an original and smart project and we are confident that its universal themes will resonate with a global audience.”

APC’s majority shareholder, UK indie producer Nevision is also associated to Windeløv and Søndberg as co-producer of the political thriller series Midnights that the Danish high profile industry execs are producing for their other outfit Good Company Films.

Other titles on APC’s growing slate of Scandi dramas include Norway’s Valkyrien, Young and Promising and Finland’s Deadwind. 

Questions to Niels A. Wetterberg Investigate North CEO, producer and creator of Unpunished 

Can you explain what differentiates Investigate North from Good Company Films?
Niels A. Wetterberg: What binds us together is that we have a shared group of owners. It was Stinna Lassen and Vibeke Windeløv who originally founded the company in 2011. Later that year Ole Søndberg also joined the company as a major shareholder. Investigate North was first and foremost founded to explore and challenge the way stories are told. That vision has developed over the years and we now take an integrated approach in the development of our projects, moulding them from the outset to work on multiple platforms. Unpunished is a flagship in our approach. It is both an ambitious TV series as well as an equally ambitious video game. 

How do you make sure the content you create do have a potentially long life across multiple platforms?
NW: To develop stories that can have a long life, the requirements in creating the universe are tripled. You need a lot of content for multiple platforms. The story also needs to be recognisable to the audience, therefore the projects we choose to work with tend to be high concept. The show must also have a certain depth to fit multiple seasons requirements, and to spur interest in other platforms and extended universe.  With Unpunished, we have also taken a slightly unusual approach in Scandinavia by creating a writers’ room including a renowned video game director (David Goldfarb).  What also sets us apart is the fact that we employ our own development team for the video game to make sure there is consistency in every design decision.

Do you have a broadcaster on board Unpunished?
NW: Not yet. However, the project is set mostly in Northern Sweden, so we are looking at Sweden first. With the growth of the console as ’the one’ home entertainment system (PS4, Xbox, Apple) Unpunished might also be a show for a player like Amazon, which has also moved into the gaming space with Lumberyard.

Will Unpunished be in Scandinavian languages, in English or a mix?
NW: The core concept in the series is the gathering of some of the most prominent researchers from around Europe (similar to the gathering of scientists for The Manhattan Project). So much of the series will be in English, with characters also speaking their native languages to keep the authenticity. 

Considering your high ambitions for Unpunished –both in narrative and reach- what budget range are you looking at?
NW: Currently the budget for the series is €11.5 million, but it might go higher as we plan to have a stellar crew, combining an a-list cast of international and Scandi talents.