Rebooted series about Wallander is set to be one of the biggest Scandinavian projects of the year, but producer Glenn Lund said today that the production process has been far from smooth.
In an interview with Seriencamp, Lund described the heated discussions some participants had with star and executive producer Gustaf Skarsgård, which he said sometimes lasted "months.".
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Lund said this was a result of Skarsgård's active involvement, and emphasized that it was driven by his passion and dedication to the character and the iconic source material.
The team got along well, he added, praising Skarsgård's hard work.
Lund said Skarsgård had previously stated that he "doesn't watch crime shows and doesn't like them" and often expressed "opinions that would be completely opposite to the channel's opinion.".
«"He's really protective of his character, but you have to find a balance because you can't completely follow his wishes," Lund said. "He understood that, too, and you could tell him, but we also had some very serious arguments over the course of several months. But that's the beauty of working on a TV show—you're a big group of people.".
Skarsgård is an executive producer, and according to Lund, he "knows the material much better than the directors, and that changes the dynamic." "We spent an incredible amount of time on casting, and he was present at auditions with many actors for many roles," he added. "He tried to find actors who had an authentic and provincial feel that would fit the world we wanted to create.".
Skarsgård previously played the iconic detective in flashback scenes in Rolf Lassgård's film «"Pyramid"» .
Henning Mankell's books have been adapted for the screen several times over the decades, both in the UK and the US, with Kenneth Branagh playing the detective. The prequel, «Young Wallander, also released on Netflix.
In this version, produced for TV4 and ARD Degeto, the protagonist struggles with aging, alcoholism and the agonising routine of his job while investigating crimes in the idyllic town of Ystad.
Despite the iconic protagonist, Lund emphasized that «Wallander »"," which airs in 90-minute episodes, is not a "character-driven series" but rather a largely "plot-driven" series. "In early versions of the script, we had too much plot," he added. "A lot of books are 500, 600, or 700 pages long, but you can't try to squeeze all that into 88 minutes.".
Lund performed at the Seriencamp festival after the showrunner Halo Stephen Kane. The festival runs until tomorrow.
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