HBO Europe adapts Scandi crime

HBO Europe is working on two local versions of Norwegian crime series Mammon for its channels in Eastern Europe.

Mammon

Production is underway in Prague on a Czech version of the show, which was originally produced in-house by NRK in Norway. C21 understands HBO also has a Polish version of the drama in the works.

Local director Vladimir Michalek is working on the Czech series, which will follow the original plot of a journalist who investigates a major scandal involving some of the country’s most senior politicians.

The format has previously been picked up by 20th Century Fox TV in the US with Chernin Entertainment producing a US version. UK broadcaster Channel 4 took the original version.

Nice Entertainment distributor DRG sells the format while Nordic World handles sales of the finished tape internationally. Germany’s Beta Film picked up rights in several territories and has since sold the series to broadcasters including Austrian pubcaster ORF.

Its Czech adaptation follows similar local versions of In Treatment, which HBO Europe commissioned, and period drama Burning Bush, which looks at the death of student Jan Palach during the Prague Spring uprising in 1968.