Hat Trick Int’l Picks Up ‘Magnus’, Indie’s First Foreign Series Comes From ‘Lilyhammer’ Producers — MipTV

Hat Trick International has picked up worldwide rights to off-beat Norwegian comedy drama Magnus, the UK indie’s first foreign language series, in another sign of the growing global appeal of foreign-language shows.

Made by Viafilm, producers of international dramas Norsemen and Lilyhammer, the title is currently playing in competition at Canneseries. Creator is Vidar Magnussen (Side by Side) and it was commissioned by Christina Rezk-Resar, Head of Comedy for NRK. Two versions of the 6 x 30’ series were shot both in Norwegian and English.

The Norway-set sci-fi crime and comedy thriller follows Magnus (played by Magnussen), an idiotic genius former detective who tries to solve a murder rooted in Norse mythology. He teams up with a suicidal police partner (Pål Rønning) and a scrawny young neighbour and the three outcasts embark on an adventure that gets increasingly strange as the story unfolds. Director is Lilyhammer’s Geir Henning Hopland.

Anders Tangen, CEO Viafilm said, “To call Magnus purely a comedy would do it an injustice, this is more like a ‘strangedy’. We have shied away from parody and tried to create real drama, built around a growing line up of absurd and unexpected characters. We are extremely pleased to have placed the international rights to our show in the safe hands of Hat Trick International with its exceptional comedy distribution credentials.”

Sarah Tong, Director of Sales, Hat Trick International commented, “Although we don’t normally pick up third party comedy as we have our own award-winning shows from the Hat Trick stable, we just couldn’t resist Magnus! We are confident that this quirky but hilarious series will travel and we can’t wait to share the show with our clients at MIPTV.”