The BBC has announced that its multi-BAFTA-winning “Wallander” has begun filming the final three 90-minute feature-length episodes in the series, with Sir Kenneth Branagh returning as existentialist Inspector Kurt Wallander operating in the small town of Ystad, Sweden.
The first film, “The White Lioness,” adapted from creator Henning Mankell’s third novel, is written by James Dormer and directed by Jonathan Van Tulleken and takes place in Cape Town, South Africa where it will be filmed.
The two final installments, based on Mankell’s final book “The Troubled Man,” will be written by Peter Harness and directed by Ben Caron, and will explore Wallander working coming to terms with his past while working on a deeply personal case. Both parts of “The Troubled Man” will be filmed on location in Skane, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark.
“I always approach each series of ‘Wallander’ with anticipation and excitement,” Branagh said, “but this last series of films contain some of the greatest challenges the character has ever faced. It’s a privilege to try to meet them, and I look forward to a great Swedish Autumn working on Henning Mankell’s masterly creation.”
Returning cast include Jeany Spark as Linda Wallander, Richard McCabe as Nyberg, Barnaby Kay as Lennart Mattson, and Ingeborga Dapkunaite as Baiba Liepa. The first three-episode series of “Wallander” aired in the UK in 2008, and like the others this final series is expected to be broadcast on PBS’ “Masterpiece Theater” in America.
