Ahh, The Pirate Bay. The illegal torrent site to end all torrent sites. The Mos Eisley of internet media. From music, to movies, to television shows, those of us in our 30s grew up familiar with it. Potentially even using it if we just didn’t have the money for movie tickets or that new CD. A six-part, character-driven series about the site is being developed for television.
“The Pirate Bay” will tell the story of its founders, Ottfrid Swartholm, Peter Sunde, and Fredrik Neij, and how they became the pioneers of file-sharing in 2003. The docudrama will switch between different perspectives. From Hollywood and the concern for copyrighted properties, to Washington wracking their brains to try and stop it. Naturally, much of this will take place in the server-filled basement of The Pirate Bay’s central hub. The series aims to be accurate, drawing on information provided by Swartholm and Sunde in interviews. As well as archived material from the investigation.
A Story Of Pushing Media Freedoms
B-Reel Films (“Midsommar“) is teaming up with Dynamic Television and the Swedish public broadcasting station SVT to produce the series. Piotr Marcimiak is head writer for the series, with Patrik Gyllström as episodic writer, and Jens Sjögren to direct. “It’s a classic rise and fall story, a tragedy about flying too close to the sun, but also a timeless story of a generational conflict,” says Marcimiak. He isn’t wrong, either. The Pirate Bay arose when the restriction of media was seen as a frustrating grift by larger corporations. “Don’t have the money to see or buy this movie? Too bad. Pay to play, sucker.” Because of its ability to share massive amounts of media, the pirating site gave way to what streaming sites are today.
“For us, this series tells the story of how three young men basically changed the whole entertainment industry and makes us feel what the various stakeholders had to pay — politically, emotionally, and financially. At SVT, we find all this exciting and we are pretty sure the audience will too,” says SVT’s head of drama, Ana Croneman. Say what you will about The Pirate Bay, but it’s likely the entertainment/streaming landscape would be far different without their influence. No release date for the series has yet been announced.
