Boardwalk Empire Hits the Nordics on Canal+

The days of gangsters and bootleg whisky in 1920s Atlantic City, New Jersey are returning to the Nordic countries. But only for subscribers to TV channel Canal+ , which will be premiering the new U.S. series Boardwalk Empire on November 1. Starring Steve Buscemi as shady politician Enoch Thompson, the U.S. premiere had the highest rating for an HBO series since the debut of Deadwood in 2005.

Canal+ is working with the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) so that a movie theater's worth of lucky viewers - industry insiders, colleagues, actors, film directors, customers and members of SFI's Cinemateket movie club - will get to see the pilot episode, directed by Martin Scorcese at a special showing on October 19.  The episode will be shown on the big screen at SFI's Bio Victor and afterwards, viewers will be serenaded by 20s jazz performed by the Stefan Andersson Quartet.

The series, which is also being promoted with posters around Stockholm, is likely to be a hit. "It usually follows that whatever does well in the U.S. does well here," says Johan Kleberg, COO of Canal+ in Stockholm. "When it comes to high-quality series like Boardwalk Empire, it's directed more toward a smaller group of TV viewers who want high quality productions, and the difference in taste between these Swedish and American audiences is even smaller."

Canal+ has the rights to premiere all HBO series in the Nordic countries. "It means we have the pleasure of offering the best of what they have," says Kleberg. "Other examples are Treme and True Blood."

As TV series have become even more of a global phenomenon, it's become ever more important that when a program is launched, it doesn't take too long to launch it in other countries. "This is so important," says Kleberg. "We would love to have the premiere at the same time as the U.S. but unfortunately it still takes a little time to solve the logistical issues of format and subtitles. But we try to shorten the times between the premieres as much as possible."

You can watch a preview of the series here.