‘African Queens: Cleopatra’ Director Tina Gharavi Options Icelandic Bestseller & Tees Up International Crime Thriller Series ‘The Fox’

Stewart Clarke

9 December 2024 at 4:25 am·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: BAFTA and Sundance-nominated Tina Gharavi has optioned Icelandic bestseller ‘Refurinn’ and is adapting it as crime thriller that will be a UK-Iceland co-production. Gharavi helmed Jada Pinkett Smith’s four-part Netflix docudrama African Queens: Cleopatra and is currently directing Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day. She will be showrunner on the series, has penned a pilot, and plans to produce and direct.

The Fox is based on Sólveig Pálsdóttir’s Refurinn, one of her Ice & Crime series thrillers, which feature detective Guðgeir Fransson.

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Nordic noir fan Gharavi bought the rights directly from the Pálsdóttir and spent time researching the book’s characters with the author. She will introduce a new British character to proceedings, said to be loosely based on the Robbie Coltrane’s Fitz in the classic crime drama Cracker and the real-life writer and feminist Germaine Greer.

The series turns on a Sri-Lankan woman who arrives in a small Icelandic outpost and then suddenly disappears. Guðgeir, a suspended detective from Reykjavik, investigates alongside Greer, a retired British cop pursuing obscurity. The drama plays out against the background of a local opiate crisis.

Gharavi was BAFTA and Sundance-nominated for I Am Nasrine and will produce through her own Bridge + Tunnel prodco. The Fox will be the first time she has served as a showrunner.

She said: “I’m a big fan of Nordic Noir and cop shows in general, but The Fox’s themes around refugees, loneliness and belonging, which are explored in this achingly remote landscape, really resonated with me. I am thrilled to have Sólveig Pálsdóttir’s trust and support for my vision for her wonderful novel”

Kidda Rokk and Steinarr Nesheim’s Icelandic label Polarama (Thin Ice) is the co-pro partner and will oversee all production in the country.

Rokk said the detective series is “quirky, pacey, and populated with captivating characters living and working in a rather unique and specific Icelandic setting that will look spectacular on screen.” He added: “We are excited to now begin conversations with broadcasters and streamers, confident that the series will be very much in demand.”

Gharavi’s current project, Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day, is shooting in the UK and Germany. It stars Haley Bennett (The Girl on the Train), Timothy Spall (Mr Turner), Elyas M’Barek (This Crazy Heart), Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous) and Lily Allen (Dreamland).

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