GÖTEBORG, Sweden — Munich-based Global Screen has acquired international distribution rights to Finnish procedural series “FAST,” set up at “Nurses”’ producer Yellow Film & TV, marking the first collaboration between Telepool’s sales division and the Finnish powerhouse.
A 10-part series, “FAST” centers on a special task force within the police department that tracks down fugitives. The C More Original is based on an idea from exec producer Olli Haikka. Tatiana Elf, winner of Finland’s local 2019 Emmy -the Golden Venla- for “King Liar” (“Keisari Aarnio”) is creator/writer. Some of Finland’s hottest helmers have boarded the series: Jalmari Helander, known for his breakthrough genre film “Rare Exports” starring Samuel L. Jackson; Hamy Ramezan, whose anticipated debut feature “Any Day Now” was a buzzy work in progress at this week’s Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market; and established director Saara Cantell (“Devil’s Bride”).
Helander said: “For me, as a huge police series fan, this was an exciting opportunity, so I jumped on it right away. It’s interesting to do a project that has less comedic elements than my previous works.”
Finnish-Iranian Ramezan, a Tribeca Jury Award winner in 2015 for his short film “Listen,” said he was “drawn deep” into the series narrative because of “its sturdy and yet frisky storytelling abilities.” He goes on: “The story, its theme and the life around its main characters, are like a ride on a boat that is ready to sink at any given moment.”
Cantell, who will explore a crime scenario for the first time after a raft of family tales, dramas and historical features and series, said she loved “the mixture of suspense and human interest” combined with humor.
Similarly to Yellow Film & TV’s hit hospital series “Nurses,” “FAST “has been developed to work both as a format and a ready-made.
FAST stands for “Fugitive Active Search Team,” explained Yellow Film & TV’s head of sales Riku Riihilahti to Variety in Göteborg. “Basically all episodes start with an action scene of a prisoner escaping custody and ends with the person either getting caught or running away for good.”
Global Screen’s TV acquisition manager Ulrike Schröder added: “For Global Screen, ‘FAST’ meets the demand of international markets for outstanding, thrilling crime series with its high-paced narrative, surprising plot twists and bold characters.
She added: “As “FAST” deals with current universal topics such as terrorism, illegal immigration, social media, cyber crime and many more, it is a series for a broad audience and fans of intelligent crime formats – which is to say for all territories. Moreover, the episodic structure makes the series highly interesting for the global market. “
Global Screen plans to launch “FAST” at October’s Mipcom trade fair in Cannes.
Meanwhile ,Yellow Film & TV’s global phenomenon “Nurses,” which has been remade in half a dozen territories, is premiering Feb. 3 in its French version, produced by Federation Entertainment for TF1, with the title “H24,” Toplining the show as the four nurses are Anne Parillaud, Frédérique Bel, Barbara Cabrita and Florence Coste.
In Finland, the original “Nurses” was produced as a 40-episode 50-minute series for Finnish public broadcaster Yle. Commercial broadcaster Nelonen then took over and turned it into a daily series.
(Pictured: (L-R) Creator Tatiana Elf, directors Hamy Ramezan, Saara Cantell, and Jalmari Helander)