TV Series based on Finland’s bestselling Maria Kallio crime series goes to production! Worldwide sales over 2.5 million copies!

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we’ve sold TV rights to Finland’s bestselling Maria Kallio crime series, written by Leena Lehtolainen: MTV3/C More. will release the TV show at the end of 2021. Filming of the beloved Maria Kallio detective series starts in Finland in the fall 2020. The title role of the series is played by Elena Leeve (Sunnuntailounas, Onnela) and other roles include Leo Honkonen, Petteri Summanen, Kristian Rundman and Matti Leino.

The upcoming production will start from Lehtolainen’s first Maria Kallio book, My First Murder, in which young Maria Kallio is still considering career-related issues. Directed by Jojo Erholtz and written by Eriikka Etholén-Paju. The series will be filmed towards the end of the year.

The new Maria Kallio novel RIPPLE EFFECT was published in Finland some weeks ago, and already more than 25,000 copies have been sold. Leena Lehtolainen is one of Finland’s most popular writers, and is known for her Maria Kallio and Bodyguard series. Worldwide her books have sold over 2.5 million copies, and her books have been translated into 30 languages. In addition to Finland, United States and Germany are other important markets for Lehtolainen’s books. There are 11 Maria Kallio titles in English, and in the US only Jo Nesbo has more translated titles than Lehtolainen.