TMG Signs On for Film Based on Best-Selling Novel

LONDON/STOCKHOLM: Tele München Group (TMG) and NICE FLX Pictures have signed a distribution and investment deal for a film project based on the Swedish book The Centenarian Who Climbed Out the Window and Vanished.

The film, The Centenarian, will be adapted from the Jonas Jonasson novel that has sold more than 1 million copies in Sweden, and is a bestseller in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Israel, Norway and Denmark. The book is set for release in the U.K. and the U.S. It is a humorous story about a man who celebrates his 100th birthday by heading on a month-long road trip around Sweden. The journey takes him back into the history of the 20th century.

Principal photography on the film will start in Sweden and Eastern Europe in the third quarter of this year, with the Swedish premiere scheduled for Christmas 2013. The film will be directed by Felix Herngren (The Sunny Side) and produced by Felix Herngren, Henrik Jansson-Schweizer and Patrick Nebout. Hollywood veteran Joni Sighvatsson (Wild at Heart, Arlington Road) is to executive produce. TMG will handle distribution of the film in German-speaking territories.

Herbert Kloiber, the owner and managing director of TMG, said: “We are looking forward to working with our Swedish partners on the adaptation of this brilliant novel.”

Patrick Nebout, the managing director and executive producer of NICE Drama, added: “The German sales of the book are amazing. It’s the first non-crime Swedish novel to have generated such huge international interest. The story is universal and its very special tone clearly appeals to audiences everywhere.”