Morten Tyldum Adapts The Black Viking For Paramount

Norwegian director Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) is set to adapt Bergsveinn Birgisson’s 2013 novel The Black Viking (Den svarte vikingen) as a TV series for Paramount Television, with each season expected to cost between 600 and 800 million kroner.

The story begins in Rogaland, 846 AD. A very special royal son is born. But we know almost nothing about Geirmund Heljarskinn, except for his Mongolian features and that he had hundreds of Christian slaves from Scotland and Ireland. The past seems to have tried to forget him.

However, 1100 years later, a distant relative of Geirmund, author Bergsveinn Birgisson, began to research Geirmund’s life and why he had to be forgotten. Old fragments, modern genetics and information gathered on trips to distant lands are puzzled together into a shocking depiction of a raw and poetic past.