SF Studios produces a film adaptation of Johan Rundberg’s novel The Night Raven

19 October 2022

Copyright: Photo credit: Ylva Sundgren

SF Studios has acquired the film rights to the acclaimed author Johan Rundberg’s book series Moonwind & Hoff that includes the novels The Night Raven, The Queen of Thieves, The Angel of Death and The Blood Pact. The thrilling and well-written book series is about the sharp-eyed orphan girl Mika who together with the police officer Valdemar Hoff hunts murderers and solves crimes in 19th-century Stockholm. The Night Raven is the first of the novels to be adapted into a film, which will be produced and distributed by SF Studios.

The Night Raven and the entire series about Moonwind & Hoff are exactly in the realm of magical realism that we both dreamed of producing. In many ways, both the world and the characters feel inspiring and exciting. We want to create a grand series of films that can enthrall cinema audiences”, say Stefan H. Lindén and Alexandra Thönnersten, producers at SF Studios.

The Night Raven revolves around Mika, who has lived at an orphanage on Drottninggatan all her life. It is winter and Stockholm is covered in snow making it impossible to get in or out of the city. In order to survive in 19th-century Stockholm, she has developed a keen eye for details and threatening situations. One night, a newborn girl is left at the orphanage by a terrified young man. It is the beginning of a chain of events that will put Mika in greater danger than she could ever imagine.

My way of writing is quite cinematic, and movies have always inspired me, so of course this is a dream come true. SF Studios has a vision of Mika's world that I really long to see”, says Johan Rundberg, author.

The Night Raven, published by Natur & Kultur Allmänlitteratur, won the August Prize 2021 for the Best Children's and Youth Book of the Year and received the Children's Novel Award in Karlstad in the category Suspense Book of the Year. In addition, The Night Raven and The Queen of Thieves won the Crimetime Award for Children's Detective Story of the Year 2021.

The Night Raven is expected to start shooting in the beginning of 2024 with a theatrical release in 2025. The film will be produced by SF Studios, which will also distribute the film in the Nordics. The producers for the film, Stefan H. Lindén and Alexandra Thönnersten, are also producing SF Studios’ feature films Forever and The Final Race.

The acquisition of the rights to Moonwind & Hoff is part of SF Studios’ strategy to produce and distribute commercial and high-quality films for a Nordic and international audience. SF Studios has recently released the Swedish film adaptation Burn All My Letters, directed by Björn Runge and based on the success novel of the same name by Alex Schulman and The Emigrants, directed by Erik Poppe and based on Vilhelm Moberg’s classic novel series. In December, SF Studios’ production A Man Called Otto, based on Fredrik Backman’s success novel A Man Called Ove, premiers globally. The film is directed by Marc Forster and stars Tom Hanks in the lead role.

For more information, please contact:
Stefan H. Lindén, producer, SF Studios, stefan.linden@sfstudios.se, +46 70 781 70 92
Malin Strihagen, Vice President Brand & Communications, SF Studios, malin.strihagen@sfstudios.se, +46 70 780 39 35

About SF Studios
SF Studios is one of the world’s oldest film companies and is celebrating 100 years in 2019. Today SF Studios is the leading film studio in the Nordic region with its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden and offices in Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki and London. The company is producing and distributing feature films and TV series as well as providing the streaming service SF Anytime. SF Studios is part of the leading Nordic media company Bonnier.