Netflix has released the first teaser of its upcoming miniseries Clark, a Swedish drama based on the life of notorious criminal and gangster, Clark Olofsson. The teaser puts Bill Skarsgård’s charming and charismatic portrayal of Olofsson on a showcase while promising a thrilling story of crimes, sex, truth, and lies. The series will feature a story spread out into six episodes and will be helmed by Jonas Åkerlund famous for directing Grammy Award-winning music film Paul McCartney: Live Kisses. The film is written for the screen from Olofsson’s autobiographical book, Vafan ver det som hände.
Olofsson was always an active criminal and was sentenced multiple times for crimes like assault, robbery, narcotics, and attempted murder. For most of his life, he was in and out of correctional institutions in Sweden. His life took a massive turn during his involvement in 1973’s Norrmalmstorg robbery.
The robbery was attempted by Olofsson’s cellmate Jan-Erik Olsson, who during hostage negotiations had Olofsson join him in the incident. However, while being held captive, the hostages bonded with their captors, especially Olofsson. Olofsson was acquitted from the case and became a media sensation for the support he received from the hostages, thus eventually branded as a celebrity gangster.
Notably, the Norrmalmstorg robbery which showed an unusual hostage crisis gave rise to the term Stockholm Syndrome, a condition that suggests a psychological bond formed between captors and hostages in some specific circumstances. The trailer of the series also features a hint to the incident as Skarsgård’s Clark Olofsson claims that the term should actually have been coined as Clark Olofsson Syndrome.
Though the series featured the hint to the most well-known part of Clark’s life, it also showed a glimpse of him growing up throughout his life into the notorious criminal he later became. The teaser, as promised by the subtext, featured a blend of genres such that of crime, erotica, and drama, with comedy as a primary approach to portraying the criminally adventurous and enthralling lifestyle of Olofsson.
Director Jonas Åkerlund Says Bill Skarsgård Is Perfect As Clark Olofsson
Talking to What’s On Netflix, director Jonas Åkerlund praised Bill’s performance and shed some light on the series’ premise, saying,
[Clark is] about [Olofsson’s] whole life and what made him who he is, the truth and lies of his incredible career. Bill Skarsgård is the perfect match for this, and he will bring the Stockholm Syndrome to the role. And Netflix is the perfect platform, they are not just the biggest streaming service, they also have the boldness to tell this incredible story.
The teaser didn’t reveal an exact date of streaming to the series but you can expect it to be made available to stream on Netflix somewhere around mid-2022. Besides Bill Skarsgård, the series also stars Agnes Lindström Bolmgren, Wilson Gonzalez, Adam Lundgren, Alicia Agneson, Malin Levanon, Vilhelm Blomgren, Hanna Björn, Gediminas Vilaniskis, and Vikte Simukauskiene.