{"id":77308,"date":"2022-02-06T21:56:55","date_gmt":"2022-02-06T16:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/hbo-max-hires-a-j-annila-to-direct-first-finnish-original-series\/"},"modified":"2022-02-06T21:56:55","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T16:26:55","slug":"hbo-max-hires-a-j-annila-to-direct-first-finnish-original-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/hbo-max-hires-a-j-annila-to-direct-first-finnish-original-series\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO Max Hires A.J. Annila To Direct First Finnish Original Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Versatile Finnish helmer A.J. Annila (\u201cSauna,\u201d \u201cShadow Lines,\u201d \u201cPeacemaker\u201d) is on board to direct the thriller series with a working title of \u201cID\u201d which marks HBO Max\u2019s first commission of a Finnish premium TV show.<\/p>\n<p>Set in the art fraud world, the six-part series is co-created by seasoned writer Aleksi Bardy (\u201cTom of Finland,\u201d \u201cMoscow Noir\u201d) and Mia Yl\u00f6nen (\u201cBad Apples,\u201d \u201cMoscow Noir\u201d) for Finnish production powerhouse Helsinki-Filmi, a subsidiary of Finland\u2019s Aurora Studios.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cID\u201d revolves around art fraud investigator Emma who goes undercover to infiltrate an auction house in Stockholm in order to investigate the firm\u2019s connection to a notorious money launderer known as Blanko. Under her new identity, the quiet Emma morphs into a different person, the party animal and hot-headed socialite Annika. Her change of persona triggers long-hidden memories to resurface, forcing Emma to confront her past.<\/p>\n<p>Annila, who contributed earlier to HBO Nordic\u2019s anthology series of short films\u00a0\u201cAt Home\u201d (Eristyksiss\u00e4),\u00a0said he is thrilled to board what he calls a \u201chighly entertaining thrill ride\u201d as well as a \u201ccharacter study of double identities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA.J. Annila is a world-class director, and after directing the international spy thriller \u201cShadow Lines\u201d he is a natural choice for a series with high visual ambition and a suspenseful, unfolding character-driven story,\u201d said Bardy.<\/p>\n<p>Christian Wikander, HBO Max commissioning editor, VP original programming, is also looking forward to his collaboration with Annila. \u201cThe unique combination of action, emotion and art will surely offer an intriguing starting point for a director, and we are excited to see how A.J. Annila will approach the themes of the story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Wikander is executive producing, alongside Steve Matthews, HBO Europe\u2019s VP executive producer, drama development.<\/p>\n<p>Produced by Eerika Vermil\u00e4, the series is due to move into production this year. It will premiere exclusively on WarnerMedia\u2019s direct-to-consumer streaming service.<\/p>\n<p>Helsinki-Filmi produced last year\u2019s Finnish Oscar entry and G\u00f6teborg Film Festival opening film \u201cTove\u201d by Zaida Bergroth.<\/p>\n<p>HBO Max\u00a0\u00a0which launched in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Spain and Andorra last fall\u00a0\u00a0is set to add 15 countries to its European roll-out on March 8, which will bring its total footprint across Europe and the Americas to 61 territories. The service is due to debut later this year in Iceland, among six new territories.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Versatile Finnish helmer A.J. Annila (\u201cSauna,\u201d \u201cShadow Lines,\u201d \u201cPeacemaker\u201d) is on board to direct the thriller series with a working title of \u201cID\u201d which marks HBO Max\u2019s first commission of a Finnish premium TV show. Set in the art fraud world, the six-part series is co-created by seasoned writer Aleksi Bardy (\u201cTom of Finland,\u201d \u201cMoscow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":77309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/HBO-Max-Hires-AJ-Annila-To-Direct-First-Finnish-Original.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}