The show was based upon a hit television crime series of the same name from Denmark, Fobrydelson or “The Crime”, which airs with subtitles across Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the UK. (But such subtitled crime series seem unwelcome here, notes Leslie Gilbert Elman.)
The Killing, American-style, is set in rainy Seattle with actress Mireille Enos playing homicide detective Sarah Linden, who’s ready to leave town until teamed with former narcotics officer Stephen Holder, played by Joel Kinnaman (actually the son of a Swedish mother) for a final, brutal case that consumes her. In one of those meta-meta fiction things, 2 novels are now being written from the premise of the original Danish show by David Hewson, who’s currently on the road to Stockholm and Copenhagen for research, with the first of these to appear in the autumn of 2012. My head hurts a little.
If that weren’t enough Dane-goodness, the Copenhagen Post online is discussing 3 more Danish crime authors who’ve landed major deals with hopeful U.S. publishers: Sara Blaedel (Sara Blædel), Jussi Adler-Olsen, and co-authors (Lene Kaaberbøl) Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis.
Yes, the article uses the dreaded phrase “Next Stieg Larsson,” but we’ll forgive if the books are good.
I’ve lived in plenty of non-English speaking countries where subtitles or, gasp, dubbed programs were shown on theaters or tv. In fact, some ‘dub’ actors are well known in their own right. I just can’t understand why we are treated to re-makes (and often bad ones at that) of works that could be easily presented in their original form.