The Bridge II ended last night on UK TV, leaving fans of Scandinavian crime fiction thinking, ‘What can I watch next?’ Well, the Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen last year saw his first Carl Mørck story turned into a film and we’ve just had news that the movie is coming to British screens this August.
The Keeper of Lost Causes stars Nikolaj Lie Kaas (left) in the role of the bitter detective Carl Mørck, who heads up the Copenhagen police’s cold cases unit, Department Q. The film is based on the book, which appeared in the UK under the title Mercy but was called The Keeper of Lost Causes in the United States. Mørck and his Syrian assistant Assad try to unravel the case of Merete Lynngaard, a promising young Danish politician who mysteriously disappeared five years prior. She’s actually been held captive by a dark, vicious villain all this time…
Shot in Danish, a subtitled version will be showing in between 50 and 80 Picturehouse cinemas in the UK. This is thanks to Cineworld, the same company that brought Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters to the English-speaking world in 2012. There’s also news that all the books in the series will be turned into films. The second book, entitled Fasandræberne (The Pheasant Killers) in Danish was translated as Disgrace in the UK and The Absent One in America. Nikolaj Lie Kaas also appeared in The Killing III as both a partner and love interest for Sarah Lund. Assad is played by Fares Fares, who was also seen in Zero Dark Thirty.
Watch also for our review of Guilt, the fourth Department Q book, soon. The Keeper of Lost Causes will open in the UK on 22 August.
Can the Danish TV series be viewed in the U.S. ? (Dept Q)
All three are on Netflix.