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Fall and rise of Swedish musician David Jassy dramatised in Nevis drama project

Nordic drama YOP is based on the life of David Jassy

SERIES MANIA: The life of Swedish artist and music producer David Jassy is being dramatised in a new project being pitched today in Lille by Nordic drama production company Nevis Productions.

YOP (8×45’) is being developed in collaboration with Jassy and is described by Nevis as “a feel-good survival story in a feel-bad arena, set to the tones of hip hop.” The artist’s involvement “gives the project an unparalleled authenticity for a prison series,” the prodco added.

David Jassy

The series is being produced by Nevis Productions’ Anni Faurbye Fernandez, Cindy Hanson and Moa Westeson and will be shot in a mixture of English and Swedish languages in both California and Stockholm. The project will debut in the Series Mania Co-Pro Pitch Competition in Lille today.

Jassy’s career as an artist and music producer came to a screeching halt in 2008 following an altercation at a crosswalk in LA, resulting in the death of a man. Jassy was given a life sentence for second degree murder and spent 11 years in California’s penal system.

The show follows Jassy as a fish-out-of-water, struggling to avoid being recruited or killed by gangs, and never knowing who a friend or a foe was. It also follows his journey through despair and drugs, and eventually redemption.

The show’s title refers to the Youth Offender Program, through which Jassy started a music mentoring project while in prison, to warn inmates against pursuing a gangster lifestyle. The music created via the scheme caught the attention of celebrities including Kim Kardashian, who campaigned for his early release.

“I want people to be inspired by my story,” said Jassy. “No matter how dark it gets, you can pull through and work through the hard times with positive thinking. The story is often one-sided from the media… but what lead him to that? I want the series to show the humans behind bars.”

As well as pitching the drama in the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions in Lille this morning, Nevis Productions is also premiering its dark YA crime series Nordland ‘99 (7×25’) in the International Panorama Series competition at Series Mania.

Nevis Productions is an independent production company with offices in Stockholm, Copenhagen and London, and was founded in 2020 by Fernandez, Hanson and Westeson, and is backed by London-based production company Nevision.

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