Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Working Title Films has landed screen rights to The Snowman, the Jo Nesbo novel that is the latest in a bestselling detective series that has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. The book is currently at the top of the UK bestseller lists and will be published by Knopf in the US next spring. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce, and the author and Niclas Salomonsson will be executive producers. The author, who has turned down numerous film offers for the book, was repped in the deal by Sylvie Rabineau and Salomonsson. The book is set on Oslo and is the latest in a mystery series revolving around detective Harry Hole. A woman is missing and her pink scarf turns up as an accessory that has been wrapped around an ominous-looking snowman that someone has built nearby. As the detective investigates, it appears it might be the work of a serial killer. It’s the seventh novel in the Harry Hole series for Nesbo.

“I’m very excited and a little worried,” the author said in a statement. “I’ve turned down offers for making movies about Harry Hole for so many years, so for me this is like putting my baby on the bus to the big city for the first time. But it feels like she’s ready for that now and I am really glad that she is going to be with a quality producer.”