Lars Kepler’s Joona Linna novels are headed to the small screen.
Apple and A+E Studios are developing a series based on Kepler’s series of crime novels featuring police detective Linna, Deadline reports.
Kepler, a pseudonym for the Swedish husband-and-wife team Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril, launched the series in 2009 with The Hypnotist, which was translated into English by Marlaine Delargy and published in the U.S. two years later. The novel introduced readers to Linna, a determined investigator with a complicated past.
Eight more books featuring Linna followed, including The Sandman and Stalker, both translated by Neil Smith, and, most recently, The Spider, translated by Alice Menzies and published in the U.S. in 2023.
The series adaptation will be set in Pennsylvania and star Liev Schreiber (The Manchurian Candidate, Spotlight) as the detective, renamed Jonah Lynn. Zazie Beetz (Joker, Deadpool 2) will play Saga Bauer, an FBI agent, and Stephen Graham (Gangs of New York, This Is England) will play serial killer Jurek Walter.
The showrunners are Rowan Joffe and John Hlavin. They’ll be joined by the authors, Schreiber, and Beetz as the series’ executive producers.
The show will be the second screen adaptation of Kepler’s work. The Hypnotist was adapted into a 2012 film directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Tobias Zilliacus, Mikael Persbrandt, and Lena Olin.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
