Polarama Productions Takes Film Rights To ‘Cuckold’ From Iceland’s Dori DNA

EXCLUSIVE: Steinarr Logi Nesheim, exec producer of Yellow Bird’s recently premiered environmental thriller Thin Ice, has acquired film rights to Cuckold, the first novel from rapper and comedian Dóri DNA. Nesheim will produce via his newly-minted Icelandic outfit Polarama Productions. Development is currently underway on the English- and Icelandic-language pic with stage director Kristín Eysteinsdóttir making her feature debut.

Cuckold (local title: Kokkál) was a bestseller in Iceland, noted for its original characters and tragicomic perspectives on masculinity. The story begins as Össi, a young and handsome advertising executive, finds himself in a Chicago hotel room, watching as his girlfriend engages with another man. The book then travels back in time to unravel how Össi and his girlfriend got there, and where do they go from here.

Eysteinsdóttir calls Cuckold “a modern day story that touches on exciting and relevant themes such as what it means being human… This is both a love story as well as a thriller. It touches on toxic masculinity, relationships and the need to belong. It is a human saga.”

Dóri DNA (aka Halldór Halldórsson) is known for his work in comedy, acting, music and screenwriting. The surname DNA refers to his relationship to his grandfather, Iceland’s most famous writer and poet, Halldór Laxness who was awarded the Nobel prize in literature in 1955. DNA says Cuckold “is essentially about the pain that encompasses people in western societies and a world where we are always seeking out ways to extinguish our self-ignited fires within. I think the story speaks to people’s hearts.”

Polarama founder Nesheim is a veteran of Icelandic production company Sagafilm.