The Hypnotist Soon in Production

Bertil Ohlsson, Börje Hansson and Peter Possne

When the thriller The Hypnotist came out in 2009, the debut novel of Lars Kepler was a huge hit, first for the Swedish publisher Albert Bonniers Förlag, and the book was quickly snapped up by other publishers - Cappelen Damm in Norway and Tammi in Finland. And earlier this year, Sonet Film and Svensk Filmindustri announced that Lasse Hallström will be directing the film version, Hallström's first Swedish film in 24 years.

And now the two companies have announced that along with Mikael Persbrandt in the title role, Lena Olin will play Simone Bark and Finnish actor Tobias Zilliacus will play Inspector Joona Linna.

"I'm extremely happy and proud that SF and Sonet will start shooting soon and that we've been able to secure Lena Olin, Mikael Persbrandt and Tobias Zilliacus as the leading actors in the film," says Peter Possne, executive producer along with Börje Hansson, head of production at Svensk Filmindustri. Bertil Ohlsson, who produced Hallström's Who's Eating Gilbert Grape, will produce the film together with Possne and Hansson.

"It is a huge and exciting challenge to start this cooperation within the Bonnier Group, where we are connecting Bonnier's publishing house with Bonnier's film production units in a very efficient and powerful way," says Possne.

The Hypnotist, due for a fall 2012 release, is the first in a series of eight projected films about Inspector Joona Linna, Possne says.