Dramacorp announced that best-selling author Jonas Jonasson agreed to terms, and is set to write the story for the mini-series “Whiskey on the Rocks.” “I have always said that reality supersedes fiction, though I am pretty skilled at coming up with stuff, nonetheless," said Jonasson. "There was no way that I would decline Dramacorp’s offer to take on the bizarre and true story about a Soviet nuclear submarine gone off course."
Jonasson will work with Nebout and Creative Director Henrik Jansson-Schweizer for the Cold War event dramedy following their previous collaboration project, which resulted in Sweden’s biggest blockbuster, “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.” Dramacorp’s chief content officer Patrick Nebout and creative director Jansson-Schweizer will executively produce “Whiskey On The Rocks.” They also contributed to other successful dramas, such as SVT Sweden’s "Thicker Than Water" and high-concept Swedish/French thriller "Midnight Sun."“It is beyond fantastic to team up with mastermind Jonas Jonasson once again,” Dramacorp’s Creative Director Henrik Jansson-Schweizer said. “He is truly one of the greatest storytellers of our time, and having his sharp pen in combination with this infamous 1981-Cold War incident will be least as explosive as when we took Allan Karlsson to the big screen.”
Jonasson’s beloved books about the 100-year-old Allan Karlsson gave him worldwide popularity. He has sold over sixteen million books in forty-six countries. A Scandinavian and international cast will play the drama’s protagonists on board the submarine and in Moscow, Stockholm, and NATO’s headquarters in Brussels. “Whiskey on the Rocks” will also be one of the first European dramas to use the next-generation in-camera and VR technology pioneered by Lucasfilm and Disney on space Western “The Mandalorian.”
The drama is based on an infamous incident that very nearly escalated into a way with Sweden and the USSR. In 1981, a Soviet U-137 ‘Whisky’-class submarine ran aground on rocks deep inside Swedish territorial waters, right in the middle of a sensitive Swedish naval exercise, leading to a Cold War stand-off between Sweden and the USSR that took 11 days of high-stakes negotiation to resolve. “Jonas has such a unique approach and angle on infamous historical events and characters, we couldn’t dream of a better voice to re-tell a story that is Scandinavia’s very own version of the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Patrick Nebout, Chief Content Officer Dramacorp said.
Jonas has such a unique approach and angle on infamous historical events and characters, we couldn’t dream of a better voice to re-tell a story that is Scandinavia’s very own version of the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Patrick Nebout Chief Content Officer, Dramacorp
