NENT Group to Adapt Cell 8 Novel

Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group) is set to adapt Roslund & Hellström’s best-selling novel Cell 8 as a Viaplay original.

In Cell 8, a man presumed dead is arrested on a ferry between Sweden and Finland, throwing detectives Mariana Hermansson (played by Mimosa Willamo) and Ewert Grens (played by Leonard Terflect) into a mysterious and dark series of events that reveal connections to Hermansson, a death-row prisoner in the U.S. and a grieving parent thirsting for revenge.

NENT Group and Miso Film have the rights to adapt four of Roslund & Hellström’s books. This is the second novel to be adapted as a Viaplay original, following Box 21.

Willamo and Terflect are reprising their roles from Box 21, with Kristofer Kamiyasu (Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard) also set to star. Dennis Magnusson (Box 21) will write the series and Johan Brisinger (Thicker Than Water) will direct. Producers are Rachel Bodros Wolgers (Jag kommer hem igen till jul) and Karl Fredrik Ulfung (Box 21) for Miso Film, with Jon Petterson as the show’s executive producer for NENT Group.

Cell 8 is set to premiere exclusively on NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service in 2022.

Filippa Wallestam, NENT Group’s chief content officer, said: “Roslund & Hellström’s storytelling is renowned around the world for good reason. They have an unerring knack of transforming social questions into unforgettable human faces, from the horrors of trafficking in Box 21 and now the moral complexities of the death penalty in Cell 8. Our latest adaptation is an ideal fit for Viaplay as we accelerate our international expansion.”

Anders Roslund, one half of the writing duo, said: “The novel Cell 8 was always one of mine and Börge [Hellström]’s favorite children. It’s crime, thriller and social commentary all at the same time. An adaptation into a series, or a new interpretation by different eyes, is like seeing that child grow up.”