EXCLUSIVE: A film adaptation of the 2024 Swedish Book of the Year winner, “When The Cranes Fly South,” is in the works at B-Reel Films, the label behind Netflix’s success. The helicopter heist. Executives from the Stockholm-based indie spoke to Deadline about their plans for the film and working with Lupine creator George Kay on new Netflix drama The case.
Cranes take flight
‘When the Cranes Fly South’ is Lisa Ridzén’s debut novel and landmark work, having won the Swedish Book of the Year Award, the Swedish Bookseller’s Prize 2025 and being shortlisted for the Waterstones 2025 First Novel Prize. It follows Bo, an elderly man in the final act of his life and reflecting on his childhood, marriage and relationships with family and friends.
“I cried and laughed throughout the book,” says Ulf Synnerholm, managing partner and head of drama at B-Reel. “It’s about death in a way, but it’s also about warmth, and there’s love, and there’s the need for family, and there’s a fascination with what life could have been; all these universal questions that occupy most of us at different stages.”
Oskar Söderlund, whose previous work includes the series Fast money And Gray area is attached as a writer. “It poses a challenge in terms of storytelling and we said we would only feel safe if we could find the best possible writer, someone who would handle it with care, but also bring something new to the property,” » said Synnerholm.
(L to R) Managing Partners, B-Reel Films: Ulf Synnerholm, Pelle Nilsson, Johannes Ahlund and Fredrik Heineg
B-reel films
On The case
B-Reel is also working on The case for Netflix. The upcoming five-part Swedish crime drama, written by George Kay, the writer best known for Lupine. It will star Jakob Oftebro and Peter Andersson under the direction of Kristoffer Nyholm.
B-Reel Films and Kay’s Observatory Pictures are making it in association with All3Media’s New Pictures, preparing a show produced in the UK and Sweden, aimed at a global audience.
“George and Willow [Grylls] and Matt [Sandford] from New Pictures, came to Stockholm and we had long conversations about the project, and we also talked about Swedish and British culture and different ways of working,” says Johannes Åhlund, managing partner at B-Reel and creative producer on The case. “Then we created a writer’s room which we organized partly in Stockholm and partly in London, and attended by British and Swedish people.”
The resulting show will be released on Netflix next year. “It’s a meeting between a type of [project] it’s a more elaborate concept and faster pace, with the twists and turns that George brings to the table, and then the more grounded and realistic Scandi Noir crime series,” says Åhlund.
A five-episode order is unusual for Netflix, but The case is not intended to be a one-off series. “We hope it can be returned,” says Åhlund.
Keep it on reel
On the cinema side, B-Reel’s film adaptation of Andrev Walden’s best-seller, “Jävla Karlar” (“Bloody Men” in English) is completed. It will hit theaters in 2026 and eventually land on Netflix. The company works in the field of film and television, as well as theater and documentary. The climate in therapya documentary about seven climate scientists participating in a therapy session focused on their climate anxiety, bowed at the CPH:DOX festival.
This is a wide range for a label which remains truly independent and is not part of one of the large producer-distributor groups.
“We have been independent for 25 years, we are four producers and we are all partners in the business and we can move forward very quickly and work on the projects that we like,” explains Pelle Nilsson, managing partner and producer at B-Reel. “No one else decides what we should do. We’ve been different sizes over the years, but we’ve always been independent, and that’s helped us.”
