David here with some festive casting news.
It won't look anything like this.
Variety reports that the ever-present Michael Fassbender is in talks to star in The Snowman. I know what you’re thinking, but no, this isn’t Fassy’s Jack Frost. He’ll star as Harry Hole, in the adaptation of the seventh entry in Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbø’s book series. It’s a chilly series from Scandinavia, which has been owning the crime drama – mainly on TV – for the past half a decade at least, with massive successes like the original The Killing.
You may have heard talk about the series for a few years now – Working Title optioned the rights a while back, with the original intention to create a series akin to the Alex Cross films (Along Came a Spider, etc.), and it even had none other than Martin Scorsese mooted as a director at one point. He’s since moved into an exec producer role, leaving the director’s chair open for a more suitable candidate: Tomas Alfredson, whose next move we’ve been awaiting since Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and whose global breakout Let the Right On In shows exemplary form for bringing the Scandinavian cool to the screen.
Hole (that’s pronounced “Hoola”, according to Nesbø) is standard detective stuff, the “stereotype of the hardboiled, troubled maverick”: abrasive, heavy smoker, alcoholic, and – naturally - an unusually perceptive detective. With Fassbender’s strong, ruminative presence bringing Hole to life, and Alfredson’s detached, observant style, this hopefully makes for a crime drama with all the bracing chill of the books.
What do you reckon? Christmas cheer or a snow-go?