US cablenet A&E is taking its remake of a Danish serial killer drama to pilot, as its original producers line up a second season.

Those Who Kill is based on the novels by author Elsebeth Egholm and was produced by Miso Film for Denmark’s TV2.

A&E confirmed earlier this year it was developing an English language remake of the show and has now ordered a pilot, to be produced by Imagine Television and Fox 21.

Glen Morgan, who wrote the script, is exec producing alongside Francie Calfo, Brian Grazer and Miso Film’s Peter Bose and Jonas Allen.

“We’ve worked on this for a long time,” Bose told C21. “I think we put together a good package with the producers and the studios attached. We had high hopes but it’s not easy to get a show remade in the US.”

Bose explained A&E will change the episode format from one story spread across two 45-minute episodes to standalone commercial hour-long installments. Many of the original characters will be retained, while storylines will also be adapted for the US market.

“A&E is a specialist channel and their audiences are looking for programmes that are a bit edgy,” Bose added. “That’s what they really liked about Those Who Kill. We also have some strong characters.”

The original Danish version has found international audiences in Germany, Sweden and the UK, where it was shown on ITV3.

A&E announced its plans for a remake ^[1] in January, when it also unveiled Bates Motel, which has since been ordered straight to series ^[2]. Parent A+E Networks has reportedly seen its value soar thanks to the success of another A&E drama, Hatfields & McCoys, allowing NBCUniversal to hike the price for the stake it agreed to sell yesterday ^[3] to Disney and Hearst.

Miso Film is currently plotting a second season of Those Who Kill for TV2, which Bose hopes to be “up and running within the next year. The channels involved in the first season have been demanding it.”

The Copenhagen-based prodco is also in the middle of shooting Dicte (10×42′), about a mother and journalist played by Iben Hjejle whose job leads her to investigate crimes. It is also based on books by Egholm and will air on TV2, TV4 in Sweden, TV2 in Norway and ZDF in Germany.

Bose described the series, due to air in early 2013, as “very different from Those Who Kill. It’s more about relationships and much more character-driven.”