‘Vanguard,' About Swedish Mogul Jan Stenbeck, Sells to Multiple Territories: ‘Him and Trump Are Both Extremely Divisive Figures' (EXCLUSIVE)

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'Vanguard,' a drama about Swedish mogul Jan Stenbeck, has sold to TG4 (Ireland), ERR (Estonia), Viaplay SVOD on Amazon Prime (U.S., U.K., Poland), Viaplay Select on Cindie (LatAm), Prima+ (Czech Republic) and Vodafone (Greece), Variety has found out exclusively.
FLX's Lejla Bešic produced the five-episode show – about to premiere at Monte Carlo TV Festival – for SVT in collaboration with the N8 alliance, while Viaplay Content Distribution handles international sales.
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The story, based on Per Andersson's biography 'Stenbeck: A Biography of a Successful Businessman,' kicks off with Stenbeck (played by Jakob Oftebro, known for 'Black Crab' and 'Hamilton') returning to the family he has spent his whole life rejecting.
Just like … Michael Corleone. 'I wanted to do a homage to 'The Godfather,'' laughed director Goran Kapetanović.
He's happy, working in New York and romancing an American socialite. But when tragedy strikes, twice, he needs to lead his family's industrial group.
The king is dead. Long live the king.
'He was this prince, living in the U.S., and then the king asked him to go back to Sweden. But he just painted the whole castle pink,' said Kapetanović. Stenbeck had ideas of his own, ultimately breaking Sweden's telephone monopoly and launching Scandinavia's first commercial channel TV3.
'He was a gambler – that's how he lived his life. Later, he was addicted to food and alcohol and just destroyed himself. It's quite tragic, this portrait of a strong, powerful man who deals with so many things but remains oblivious to his family, for example.'
It was the complicated family dynamic that attracted Alex Haridi. He wrote the script with Lotta Erikson and Helene Lindholm.
'I also have a very, very complicated relationship with my sister. When I started reading about Jan, that part opened my eyes: it's like watching Greek gods, fighting and having all these conflicts, and everything they do trickles down to ordinary people. I can see things in my own life that are a direct result of these siblings not getting along back in the early 80s.'
He added: 'He really impacted our lives in Sweden, and he wasn't even meant to run the company! He was the youngest of four children. Then he steps in and becomes this enormous figure. I don't want to put an equal sign between him and Trump, but they are both extremely divisive figures. People call him the savior or the devil. In a sense, he's both. And neither.'
Their lead actor had to capture this duality, too.
'Jan can be likeable. There's something mystical about him and a little bit childish. I've been looking all over Sweden, then I turned to Norway and the only guy who could speak all three Scandinavian languages was Jakob,' recalled Kapetanović.
'It was a bit risky because of the accent, but he did a Swedish show before. Now, we have a Norwegian guy playing one of the most important Swedish guys. I'm so proud of it.'
Haridi noted: 'I just remember watching Jakob during the casting process. He was so charming, so warm and wonderful. And then there was this point when everything shifts. All of a sudden, it felt icky. He really carries the show.'
Oftebro is joined by Zoe Boyle, Malin Crepin, Julia Marko Nord, Iggy Malmborg and Niklas Engdahl. While 'Vanguard' had to be 'very, very factually correct,' admitted Haridi, the actual family wasn't involved.
'We talked to lots of people around the family and around the company. The family itself was informed the series was being written and made, but they didn't want to participate.'
Instead, the team focused on making the story appealing to younger viewers – Stenbeck passed away in 2002 – and finding a way to combine his personal struggles with massive changes in the media landscape he was very much a part of.
'In the 1970s, there were educational programs everywhere, and then people realized they could make money. They just said: 'We want to give people what they want.' That's basically what Steinbeck said, too: 'We'll give Swedish people what they want to see.' There's a beautiful scene in the fourth episode when he's talking to these Italian Berlusconi types [Berlusconi was a founder of Mediaset]. That's why we're getting so many trashy TV shows these days.'
'There's a lot of business talk [in the show], so we had to balance it out, making sure there's always something emotional going on underneath,' added Haridi.
'Even if you don't understand exactly what they're talking about in business terms, there's a personal story you can follow. Having these two layers in every scene was the right way to do it.'
'At the end, it really comes down to family, to all of them competing with each other,' observed Kapetanović. 'You win some, you lose some and at the end you wonder: Was it worth it or not?'
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