As it’s Pontas will to act as a bridge between books and films, this season has been very successful so far. Three adaptation deals have been concluded for three very different titles and we are eager to follow the process to see those books into the big screens!
German producer Peter Nadermann is known for his good eye for thrillers for international audiences. He acquired Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy (and teamed with Yellow Bird to produce the first Swedish versions) and also acquired Henning Mankell’s series to become Wallander at BBC, starring Kenneth Branagh. Now we are glad to announce that Nadcon, the new joint venture of Peter Nadermann and Constantin Film (co-producers of Nowehere in Africa, Oscar winner of Best Foreign Language Film in 2002) have acquired the “Trilogy of Baztan” by Dolores Redondo. Starting with The Invisible Guardian, to be published in early 2013 almost simultaneously in eight languages! The plan is to produce an English language film but shot in the novel’s locations, in the Baztan Valley in Navarra.
Christoffer Carlsson’s two novels, The Case of Vincent Franke and The One-Eyed Rabbit, have already been translated into six languages by good publishing houses such as De Geus (Dutch), Newton & Compton (Italian) or Gyldendal (Danish). And now the film rights to adapt The One-Eyed Rabbit have been acquired by Swedish producer Helene Lindholm at Atmo. Among many other successes, Helene Lindholm is known for having produced She Monkeys, a film directed by Lisa Aschan that won three awards at the 2011 Guldbagge, the Swedish Academy Awards; and it was appointed Best Film of the Year. The film has been sold into more than 50 countries.
Two very good Spanish producers (Miriam Porté at Distinto Films and Daniel Hernández atAlea Films) have decided to join efforts to co-produce the adaptation of Gabi Martínez latest book, Only for Giants. Half way between fiction and non-fiction, this book is the story of Gabi’s travelling to Pakistan diving into the investigation of the death of zoologist Jordi Magrané, who moved there in 1988 in seach for new animal species, through his main (and confidential) objective in the mission was to find traces of relatively human feet: he dreamed of finding the Yeti. Adventures, passion and politics are equally described in this book to become a thrilling film.