Banijay Rights announced Yellow Bird’s Swedish true crime drama series “The Hunt For A Killer” has been acquired by BBC Four. Scheduled to debut on the channel and BBC iPlayer later this summer, the series is set in southern Sweden in the late 1980s and revolves around the real-life disappearance and subsequent murder of a 10-year-old girl. It follows the 16-year investigation into the murder and the determination of the local police force to solve the case.
Critically-acclaimed as unique in its genre by the Swedish press, the series is a co-production between Banijay-owned Swedish production company Yellow Bird, Swedish public broadcaster SVT, and Film I Skåne. Further international sales of “The Hunt For A Killer” have been made to SBS (Australia), RTL (Germany) and NBC Universal (France).
The BBC deal also follows hot-on-the-heels of another Swedish crime thriller from Yellow Bird, “Bäckström,” which was picked up earlier this year by AMC Networks in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, for its streaming service Acorn TV.
“‘The Hunt For A Killer’ is a chilling, authentic and evocative true crime drama that BBC viewers will find completely absorbing,” said Sue Deeks, Head of Programme Acquisition at BBC.
Chris Stewart, SVP UK & Eire at Banijay Rights, added: “‘The Hunt For A Killer’ has been described as Sweden’s answer to ‘Manhunter,’ compared with ‘True Detective,’ and is worthy of the accolades. Brutally authentic and masterfully directed by Mikael Marciman, it’s a true crime drama that’s guaranteed to get under the skin and we can’t wait to share it with the BBC audience”.