‘So Long, Marianne’: Watch Alex Wolff Become Leonard Cohen In NRK & Crave Drama Series

By Jesse Whittock, Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s an exclusive first trailer at So Long, Marianne, the Norwegian-Canadian drama series about the life of Leonard Cohen.

The eight-part series tells the story of the Canadian singer and poet’s love story with Marianne Ihlen, who became his muse after they got together in the 1960s. It’s billed as an intimate tale of two, lonely people falling in love, during a period of their life when they are trying to figure out who they are and their place in the world, while one is becoming one of the most famous singers of all time.

Alex Wolff (A Quiet Place: Day One, Oppenheimer) plays Cohen, with Thea Sofie Loch Næss (The Last Kingdom, Delete Me,) playing Marianne. In the trailer, Cohen sees Ihlen for the first time while they are both on the Greek island of Hydra, with the following cuts showing how their unconventional romance blossomed.

First revealed by Deadline back in April 2022, the Cineflix Rights-sold series has been building a head of steam in European and North American circles, securing buyers such as ITVX in the UK and Cosmote in Greece.

The show was originally for Norwegian pubcaster NRK and Canadian streamer Crave, with co-production from Redpoint Productions, Tanweer Productions, and C3 Media. It launches on NRK and German streaming pubcaster ARD Mediathek on September 22 before launching on Crave five days later. Further rollout follows later in the year.

Also cast are Anna Torv (The Newsreader, The Last of Us, Mindhunter), Noah Taylor (Preacher, Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones) and Peter Stormare (American Gods, Fargo).

So Long, Marianne was developed by Ingeborg Klyve (Exit), Øystein Karlsen (Exit, Lilyhammer, Whitstable Pearl) and Tony Wood (Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Marcella, The Burning Girls) and written for the screen by Øystein Karlsen and Jo Nesbø (Harry Hole, Kingdom, Headhunters). Øystein Karlsen and Bronwen Hughes (Shantaram, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) are the directors.

The series is produced by Ingeborg Klyve and Glenn Lund. Executive Producers are Ales Ree for NRK, Richard Tulk-Hart and Tony Wood for Buccaneer, Vegard Stenberg Eriksen and Ingeborg Klyve for Redpoint Productions, Dionyssis Samiotis and Nancy Kokolaki for Tanweer Productions, and André Barro and Pablo Salzman for C3 Media. Cineflix Rights is the exclusive worldwide distribution partner.