Mads Mikkelsen is quarry for Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

02/11/2011 - Shortly to be honoured for European Achievement in World Cinema 2011 by the European Film Academy, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen will star in Danish director Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt, which will shoot from this week (November 4) through December 21 on Danish locations.

It is Mikkelsen's second lead role in Danish cinema this year, after Nikolaj Arcel's 18th century drama A Royal Affair about the romance between a Danish Queen (Alicia Vikander) and the King's physician. He is currently on the cinema screens in US director Paul W.S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers [trailer].

For The Hunt, Vinterberg reteams with scriptwriter Tobias Lindholm (with whom he penned his latest, Submarino [trailer, film focus] to tell the story of a 40-year-old man in a small provincial community, who has finally recovered from a tough divorce, when a five-year-old kindergartener drops a remark that accuses him of abusing her.

The €2.7 million production, which is backed by €500,000 from the Danish Film Institute and last month (October) received €300,000 Eurimages support, will be produced by Morten Kaufmann and Sisse Graum Jørgensen for Zentropa Entertainments, with Zentropa Sweden and Swedish regional film ceentre, Film i Väst.

Co-starring Susse Wold (her first film role in 26 years), Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe and Anne Louise Hassing, The Hunt will be released domestically by Nordisk Film A/S in late 2012. Danish international sales agency TrustNordisk will introduce the title at this week's American Film Market.

One of the original Dogme brothers, with Lars von Trier, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen and Kristian Levring, Vinterberg's Dogme 1, The Celebration, won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes. After It's All About Love and Dear Wendy, both English-language, his Submarino won the Nordic Council Film Prize.