Tomas Alfredson to Direct Adaptation of Jo Nesbø's 'The Snowman'

Working Title's long-gestating adaptation of The Snowman has its director: Tomas Alfredson, whose Let the Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy make him arguably the most temperature-appropriate filmmaker alive for Jo Nesbø's Oslo-set serial-killer novel. Martin Scorsese, once attached to direct, stays aboard as executive producer.

The Snowman is the seventh Harry Hole novel and the series' international breakout: a killer who strikes with the first snowfall and leaves snowmen facing his victims' windows. Nesbø's blend of procedural rigor and Grand Guignol has sold tens of millions of copies and drawn the inevitable-but-lazy Larsson comparisons — Nesbø is both pulpier and more precise.

Alfredson inherits a script that has passed through several hands, and the production faces the usual Scandinavian-thriller question: shoot English-language in Norway, or relocate? The director says the snow itself is non-negotiable — 'it's the lead actor.'

Update: the film arrived in 2017 with Michael Fassbender as Harry Hole, and Alfredson himself admitted the shoot ran out of time — a rare case of a director publicly diagnosing his own film. The messy result and its ratings are on the adaptation page; the novel remains prime Nesbø.