As Deadline reports, the relationship between legendary singer-songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen and his well-known muse Marianne Ihlen (“So Long, Marianne”) will be a subject of a new TV drama series.
The series is being co-produced by British, Canadian, and Norwegian production companies, with the involvement of Dag and Lilyhammer writer Øystein Karlsen.
The 8×45 minutes series is billed by producers as an “intimate” story of “two equally lonely people falling in love in a period of their life when they are still trying to figure out who they are.”
A majority of the series will be set on the Greek island of Hydra where the pair met before starting a chaotic relationship that inspired the late singer-songwriter to pen songs such as “So Long, Marianne,” “That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,” and “Bird On The Wire.”
Scenes will also be set in Ihlen’s hometown Oslo, plus London, New York, and Montreal, and the production is set to begin in February 2023.
Cast on the English and Norwegian-language show will be announced “in the very near future”, according to UK producer Tony Wood and Richard Tulk-Hart.
NRK’s Furevold-Boland and Head of Content Commissioning and Sales Petter Wallace said writer Karlsen had “shown in his previous projects that he can create original dramas that are both exciting and emotion[al]… We believe this project has the potential to become a timeless drama with universal appeal – it is about life and the pursuit of happiness.”
