Dutch actress Carice van Houten, currently on screens in the box-office hit A Woman Goes to the Doctor (see news), has recently wrapped the title role in another big Dutch production inspired by a semi-autobiographical novel: The Happy Housewife.

Van Houten, arguably the only star actress of the country, is joined by two women behind the scenes: director Antoinette Beumer (of documentary See You in Vegas) and author Heleen van Royen, who wrote the original novel that inspired the screenplay.
Van Royen’s literary debut sold over 150,000 copies in the Netherlands since it was first published in 2000 and was translated into, amongst others, English, French, German and the Scandinavian languages.

Filming on the adaptation took place in the Netherlands between mid-October and early December. The film will be released in April 2010 through Benelux Film Distributors.

The ironically titled The Happy Housewife tells the story of Lea (van Houten), who is married to rich real estate dealer Harry (Waldemar Torrenstra, from Summer Heat), with whom she has a child at his insistence.

Everyone is in seventh heaven after the arrival of Harry Jr, except Lea. The suicide of her father, many years earlier, comes into play when Lea has to assume the role of a parent herself.

The project reunites van Houten with Reinout Oerlemans, who directed her in A Woman Goes to the Doctor and who is one of the producers here for his media company Eyeworks. The film is co-produced by Inspire Pictures and Dutch commercial broadcaster RTL.