Anxious People by Swedish author Fredrik Backman / Tyll by German novelist Daniel Kehlmann / The Forty Rules of Love by Turkish writer Elif Shafak

At Frankfurter Buchmesse, Netflix today announced three new book deals to produce original series: Anxious People by Swedish author Fredrik Backman to start production soon, Tyll by German novelist Daniel Kehlmann that will be brought into life by Dark's showrunners Baran Bo Odar and Jantje Friese as well as The Forty Rules of Love by Turkish writer Elif Shafak to be produced in the near future.



During a talk in front of 200 people at the world’s leading book fair Netflix VP of International Originals in EMEA Kelly Luegenbiehl said: “We are extremely excited about these three new projects as they show again that great stories can come from anywhere, in any language and from different moments in time.”



Anxious People, a new Swedish Netflix dramedy is based on Fredrik Backman’s book of the same name and produced by FLX, the production company behind Quicksand and upcoming Love & Anarchy. The series will be directed by Felix Herngren, director and screenwriter of the Academy Award nominated film The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. Screenwriter is Camilla Ahlgren, the head writer of The Bridge and Quicksand.



The Forty Rules of Love by Turkish-British author and Booker Prize nominee Elif Shafak has been translated into 37 languages after being released in 2011 and selling over 850,000 copies in Turkey alone. A member of the Royal Society of Literature, Shafak is hailed as one of the most renowned authors in contemporary world literature. In The Forty Rules of Love, the reader encounters a novel within a novel. Shafak tells two parallel stories that mirror each other across two completely different cultures and span over seven intervening centuries – exploring the thirteenth century poet, Rumi, Sufi mysticism and the universal quest for love.



Tyll, a new German Netflix series is based on Daniel Kehlmann's best-selling novel of the same name and produced by DARK WAYS (Baran Bo Odar & Jantje Friese), the producers behind the German Netflix Original Dark. The fascinating, scary and humorous epic sets the well-known figure of the entertainer, provocateur, prankster and actor Till Eulenspiegel into the Thirty Years' War and cleverly tells of the emotional collapse and devastations caused by violence. With over 600,000 books sold in Germany alone, the spellbinding narrative Tyll has attracted worldwide attention with copies in over 22 countries.



FACTS & FIGURES



ANXIOUS PEOPLE (2019)

Author: Fredrik Backman

Country: Sweden

Blurb: Anxious People is an unreasonably riotous comedy about a hostage drama during an open house. A failed bank robber locks themselves in with an over-enthusiastic real estate agent, two bitter IKEA-addicts, a pregnant woman, a suicidal multi-millionaire and a damn rabbit. In the end the robber gives up and lets everyone go, but when the police storm the apartment it is...empty.

In a series of dysfunctional testimonies afterwards, the witnesses all tell their version of what really happened, whereupon a classic puzzle mystery develops around the questions: How did the robber manage to escape? Why is everyone so angry? And: What is WRONG with people these days?

Auspices:

• Head writer: Camilla Ahlgren (Quicksand, The Bridge)

• Director: Felix Herngren (100 Year Old Man)

• Producer: Fatima Varhos, FLX (Quicksand)

• Netflix Executives: Tesha Crawford, Mia Sohlman

Notes: Latest novel from the author of global bestseller A man called Ove.



THE FORTY RULES OF LOVE (2011)

Author: Elif Shafak

Country: Turkey

Blurb: “Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough..."

Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home in a good neighbourhood. She seems to have all that she needs to make her feel confident and fulfilled. Yet there is something missing, something she cannot quite explain--neither to others nor to herself. There is an emptiness at the heart of Ella's life - an emptiness once filled by love.

So when Ella, almost by chance, starts reading a manuscript about the thirteenth-century poet Rumi and his companion Shams of Tabriz, and the forty rules of life and love, she feels a longing in her soul, a longing that eventually leads her to embark on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work.

It is a quest infused with spiritual philosophy, wisdom and poetry, taking Ella, and alongside her, the viewers, into an exotic world where friendship, freedom, faith and love are heartbreakingly explored…



Auspices:

• Netflix Executives: Pelin Distas, Ahmed Sharkawi

• This deal was brokered by Luke Speed at the Curtis Brown Group.

Notes: Published in 2011, this novel sold over 850,000 copies in Turkey and has been translated into 37 languages worldwide. Shafak’s latest novel has recently been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.



TYLL (2017)

Author: Daniel Kehlmann

Country: Germany

Logline: The vagrant, actor, entertainer and provocateur Tyll Ulenspiegel is born in the early 1600s. Tyll’s father, a miller, is also a magician and explorer, and soon arouses the ire of the village churchmen. Tyll is forced to flee, accompanied by Nele, the baker’s daughter. During his travels through a country devastated by the Thirty Years’ War he meets both ordinary people and great souls. These include the young academic and writer Martin von Wolkenstein, who’s dying to find out what war is really like; the melancholic executioner Tilman; Pirmin, the juggler; Origines, the talking donkey; the exiled rulers of Bohemia, Elizabeth and Friedrich, whose mistakes sparked this great war; the doctor Paul Fleming, whose bizarre plan is to write poems in German; and, not least, the fanatical Jesuit Tesimond and Athanasius Kircher, the renowned sage whose biggest secret is that he forged the startling results of his scientific experiments. Their stories come together in a spellbinding narrative, and an epic re-imagining of the Thirty Years’ War. And who should this violent whirlwind envelop in its fury if not Tyll, the well-known prankster who one day decides to become immortal?

Auspices:

• Showrunners: Baran Bo Odar & Jantje Friese

Notes: Sold in 22 countries worldwide, this literary novel was a big success in Germany (600,000 sold copies in Germany alone).



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Media contact

Henning Dorstewitz, Netflix Communications, hdorstewitz@netflix.com, +4915172306924





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HENNING DORSTEWITZ

Director, Communications | DACH & CEE

M: +49 151 7230 6924 | E: hdorstewitz@netflix.com | Twitter: @HenningD

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About Frankfurter Buchmesse

Frankfurter Buchmesse is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair – with over 7,500 exhibitors from 109 countries, around 285,000 visitors, over 4,000 events and some 10,000 accredited journalists and bloggers in attendance. It is the most important international marketplace for content – from novels and children’s books to academic databases and stories for films, games and virtual reality experiences. Publishing professionals from around the world meet here with partners from the technology sector and from related creative and cultural industries, sparking new partnerships and business models. A strong conference programme ensures that Frankfurter Buchmesse is a major source of inspiration for content experts from around the world. Since 1976, the book fair has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways. Frankfurter Buchmesse organises the participation of German publishers at around 20 international book fairs and hosts trade events throughout the year in major international markets. Frankfurter Buchmesse is a subsidiary of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association). https://www.buchmesse.de/en