Nordisk takes reins on Department Q novel adaptations following Zentropa hits.

Nordisk Film has acquired the remaining Danish-language adaptation rights to crime author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s bestselling Department Q series of novels. Nordisk now has the rights from the fifth book (The Marco Effect) onwards and is expected to release (through Nordisk Film Distribution) as well as produce the film titles.

Adler-Olsen has written six books in the series and is currently writing the seventh of a planned ten volumes. Nordisk expects to produce up to six films.

Nordisk’s associated company Zentropa has the rights to the first four Department Qbooks, and the first three films — The Keeper of Lost Causes, The Absent One and A Conspiracy of Faith — have been significant box-office hits in Denmark.

Zentropa is planning to release a fourth film, an adaptation of The Purity of Vengeance, by 2018. The series is about two mismatched detectives investigating ‘cold’ cases.

“For a couple...