The Andalucian Friend: Which Comes First? The Chicken or the Egg?

Or in this case ... the book or the movie?!?

I can't even find a picture of Soderberg
so I threw in a shot of Noomi Rapace,
my vote to play Sophie.

A Nikki Finke exclusive reveals that Indian Paintbrush has acquired screen rights to The Andalucian Friend, a debut novel by Swedish author Alexander Soderberg that hasn't even been completed yet! Apparently the novel is so good (there's that upsurge of popularity for Nordic lit again!) that created a huge buzz and sold big at the Frankfurt Book Fair a few weeks ago. The novel also sold strongly internationally, based on a 100 page partial manuscript. It won't even be published here in the U.S. until 2013. The book is intended to be the first of a trilogy (hmmm, can you say millenium in Swedish?) that follows a nurse and single mother, Sophie, "who falls in love with the head of a major mob family and gets involved in a conflict between two powerful crime syndicates and a group of corrupt police officers. Indian Paintbrush will finance the film, with Steven Rales and Mark Roybal producing.  The author will also be an executive producer. No word yet on who will write the screenplay - maybe the novelist, Soderberg?, who will direct, etc. I guess they're going to let Soderberg at least complete the manuscript. Still, I'm going to throw Noomi Rapace's name into the air as the working mom and see where it lands a year or so from now!