ITV Studios has taken control of Apple Tree Productions, the Danish scripted producer founded in 2017 by The Killing and The Bridge producer Piv Bernth.
ITV Studios has upped its stake in the company from 25% to 51% and it will become a more integrated part of the production arm’s family of scripted producers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Co-founded by DR deputy head of drama and producer Lars Hermann, Apple Tree is behind Netflix supernatural thriller series Equinox.
Pre-production is also underway on an adaptation of Kerstin Ekman’s multi-award winning crime novel, Blackwater, for SVT in Sweden and ARD in Germany.
Bernth and Hermann said: “We hope that we, closer together now, can merge all our best efforts and make Scandinavian and international drama to viewers all over the world.”
Julian Bellamy, ITV Studios’ managing director, added: “The global appetite for the Nordics’ very distinctive style of storytelling has grown and grown, both within Denmark itself as well as globally.”
