15/05/2013 - Swedish director Daniel Alfredson will film The Kidnapping of Freddy Heineken - the 1983 'crime of the century' when the Heiniken president was exchanged for a €16 million ransom

Swedish director Daniel Alfredson, who most recently finished Swedish drama mystery Echoes from the Dead, has been signed to direct The Kidnapping of Freddy Heineken, with UK actor Anthony Hopkins in the lead. The thriller will be staged by US producers Michael Simpson and Judy Cairo for LA-based Informant Media and sold at Cannes by Embankment Films.

Scripted by US American writer William Brookfield, The Kidnapping depicts 'the crime of the century', when in 1983 four Dutch childhood friends - including Cor van Hout and Willem Holleeder - abducted Heineken president Freddy Heiniken and his driver and claimed a record €16 million ransom. After the gang had divided the cash, they never worked together as a group again; eventually they were all tracked down and sentenced to prison, but the majority of the money was never recovered.

The Kidnapping is based on Dutch investigative journalist Peter R de Vries' book on the affair. Two years ago Dutch director Maarten Treurniet presented his version of the abduction, The Heineken Kidnapping, starring Duth actor Rutger Hauer.

The film will shoot late this year in Amsterdam and Paris, and at the same time (September 27) Alfredson - who directed The Girl Who Played With Fire [+see also:
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Starring Lena Endre (pictured; photo credit: Baldur Bragason), Tord Peterson and Thomas W Gabrielsson, the adaption of Johan Theorin's novel follows the reconciliation of daughter and father: Julia has never forgiven her sea captain father Gerlof, whom she accuses of being guilty of her son's death. Gerlof has made his own investigation and suspects a legendary murderer on Öland, Nils Kant, to be involved in his disappearance; but Kant is long gone.