23/09/2013 - Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen exits from his collaboration with Zentropa Entertainments, reducing the planned Department Q franchise from 10 to four thrillers

Before Danish director Mikkel Nørgaard’s The Keeper of Lost Causes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eugenio Mira
film profile], introducing the thriller franchise from Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s novels about Department Q for "cases of special focus", is domestically released (on October 3), Adler-Olsen has announced that his collaboration with Danish production company, Zentropa Entertainments, has ended.

“Zentropa has bought the rights for the first four books in the series, and I do not intend to sell more to them,” he explained to local press, adding the decision was “undramatic.” – “The only drama in this case is what’s written in the tabloids,” confirmed Danish producer and Zentropa ceo Peter Aalbæk Jensen, who had planned an annual Adler-Olsen premiere for the next 10 years.

Adler-Olsen, Nørgaard, scriptwriter Nikolaj Arcel and Aalbæk Jensen allegedly disagreed about details in the transfer from book to film of deputy detective superintendent Carl Mørck and his side-kick Assad’s first investigation: the disappearance five years ago of a woman politician, now presumed dead. The truth, however, is worse than they could imagine.

The Keeper of Lost Causes, aka The Woman in the Cage, was last year awarded the Deadly Pleasures' Barry Prize for Best Novel in the US, where it entered the New York Times' list of bestsellers. The film was the first Danish selection in 13 years for the Piazza Grande’s 8,000 audience in Locarno.

Before the premiere, 32,000 Danes have bought tickets for the Louise Vesth production starring Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares and Sonja Richter. – Meanwhile Nørgaard is about to start principal photography for No 2, The Absent One, with Kaas, Fares, Pilou Asbæk, David Dencik and newcomer Danica Curcic in the leads.