After Keep the Lights On, Lindhardt descends into Kampusch’s dungeon

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

23/04/2012 - Currently at CPH PIX 2012 – the Copenhagen International Film Festival - with US director Ira Sachs’ Keep the Lights On, which won the Teddy Award at the recent Berlinale, Danish actor Thure Lindhardt (pictured) has landed another lead role in an international picture, US-born director Sherry Horman’s German 3096 (aka Kampusch).

Scripted by the late German director-producer Bernd Eichinger (with Peter Reichard), for himself to direct, 3096 is based on the novel 3,096 Days by Austrian Natascha Kampusch, telling the story how on March 2, 1998, she was snatched off the street in Vienna and bundled into a white van. She was only ten years old.

The abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, imprisoned her in 2 x 3 metre dungeon, and the book describes the mental and physical abuse she suffered and how she learned to manipulate her captor until she finally managed to escape on August 23, 2006. Priklopil subsequently committed suicide.

Lindhardt will play Priklopil in 3096, with Irish actress Antonia Campbell-Hughes as Kampusch (and UK actress Amelia Pidgeon as the younger kidnapee). With Michael Ballhaus behind the camera, shooting for the €6 million feature – which takes its title from the days Kampusch was held hostage - will start in Munich in May.

The Danish actor had his first part in Danish director Bille August’s Oscar winner, Pelle the Conqueror (1987), and his break-out role in Kaspar Rostrup’s A Place Nearby (2000). He also starred in Danish director Ole Christian Madsen’s Flame & Citron [trailer] (2008) and US director Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons (2009).