BERLINALE 2012 Market / Sweden
Hallström passes the baton to Sundvall to direct The Paganini Contract
While Swedish director Lasse Hallström is midway through The Hypnotist, his first Swedish feature since 1987, Swedish major Svensk Filmindustri AB announced at the European Film Market in Berlin that Kjell Sundvall (pictured) will adapt the next Lars Kepler novel, The Paganini Contract, which will shoot from this autumn for a late 2013 launch.
”I am thrilled to pass the baton to Sundvall. He is one of Scandinavia’s most experienced thriller directors, it should fit him like a glove,” said Hallström. ”When I read the book I could not leave it till I had finished – it is a tight, exciting story, made for an explosive and hair-raising film,” added Sundvall, credited with, among others, The Hunters 1-2 (1996-2011).
Svensk Filmindustri and its subsidiary, Sonet Film AB, have planned eight features from Kepler’s novels – some yet unwritten – with Tobias Zilliacus as police detective Joona Linna, and helmed by different Nordic top directors, such as Sweden’s Mikael Hafström or Denmark’s Susanne Bier, Lone Scherfig. The films are produced by Börje Hansson, Peter Possne and Bertil Ohlsson.
Published in 2009, The Hypnotist became one of the most successful Swedish crime novels since Millennium; The Paganini Contract is the second book by Kepler, whose identity has been revealed as being Alexandra Coelho and Alexander Ahndoril, a married couple of authors.
Also starring Mikael Persbrandt and Lena Olin, Swedish-Finnish police detective Linna’s first assignment on the screen concerns the brutal murder of a whole family in suburban Stockholm. The only survivor, though badly injured, is the 15-year-old son - a retired hypnotist is called in to work with him. Svensk will handle Scandinavian release in September.
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