West Swedish production “Den Inre Cirkeln” coming out on Viaplay

“Den Inre Cirkeln” is a political thriller that plays out over the course of a few hot summer days during the annual political conference in Almedalen. The story is centered on characters who are in or near the absolute center of the political world. We follow them behind the facade and see how a dramatic media storm affects a powerful politician.

“Den Inre Cirkeln” will premier on Viaplay in March 2019.

“We are extremely proud of being able to create a sharp new drama alongside Per Schlingmann, who has a unique insight into a world that we all want to know more about. This is a Swedish mix of ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Empire,’ where strong characterization drives a mult-layered story about political life behind the facade,” says Fredrik Ljungberg, Program Director for Viaplay.

The Gothenburg-based production company Fundament Film, with producer Håkan Hammarén, is behind the project. Håkan Lindhé (“30 Grader i Februari” (30 degrees in February), “Modus”) is the conceptual director and head screenwriter. The cast includes Niklas Engdahl (“Bonusfamiljen” (Bonus Family)) as a career-driven Minister for Enterprise and Energy, Nanna Blondell (“Hassel”) as his capable press secretary and Ebba Hultkvist Stragne (“Skärgårdsdoktorn”) as an investigative journalist.

“I met Per Schlingmann before he’d even begun to write the novel, and he explained what he was planning to write. Right then and there it struck me as a powerful project that would make a good TV series,” explains Håkan Hammarén, producer at Fundament Film.

“But if you’re going to make a series from a book, there’s only enough material for 2–3 hours. We knew that we wanted to make eight 45-minute episodes, or a six-hour TV series. So we had to expand and create more characters and situations to carry the whole season,” Håkan continues.

Now the first season of the series is almost done and will premiere on Viaplay in March 2019. But script development for season two is already underway.

“We’re working on the storyline for season two of ‘Den Inre Cirkeln,’ which will be freely based on Per Schlingmann’s second novel, ‘Harpsund Tur och Retur.’ My plan is for us to be done with the entire script process by the summer of 2019 and then film season two during the autumn.”

The project “Den Inre Cirkeln” is one of the productions granted financial assistance from Lindholmen Science Park. Read more about project founding