Sleepwalking Cannibal still starving, no feed from Danish screens

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

26/07/2012 - After a series of best-selling local features, most recently Danish director Rasmus Heide's All for one [trailer] (380,000 admissions/2011), and Janus Metz Pedersen's documentary Armadillo [trailer, film focus], which has just been nominated for four Emmy awards, Danish producer Ronnie Fridthjof has realised that 'you can't win 'em all'.

Fridthjof co-produced Canadian director Boris Rodriguez's horror comedy, Eddie - The Sleepwalking Cannibal, which has toured five international festivals, including Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic) and Tribeca in New York. Starring Danish actor Thure Lindhardt, it reached 44 Danish screens this month (July 12).

"I had not expected it to become a blockbuster - 15,000 or 20,000 tickets would have been fine," Fridthjof told Danish film magazine Ekko. But the Danish market for genre films could spare less than 4,000 admissions for the app €1.2 million production, which was backed by €350,000 from Fridthjof and the Danish Film Institute.

Lindhardt stars as Lars, once a Danish famous painter, now teacher at a small art school in Canada; he is also caretaker for the neighbourhood weirdo, Eddie, who doesn't speak. Eddie becomes his trusted friend - Lars realises he hides a dark and violent secret, and gradually rediscovers inspiration.

Fridthjof Film's first foreign venture, Eddie - The Sleepwalking Cannibal was produced by Canada's Quiet Revolution Pictures and shot in Ottowa by Danish cinematographer Philippe Kress. All post-production took place in Denmark, and the film was edited by Sara Bøgh Jensen with Anders Refn.

While the Danish producer expected 6,000-7,000 admissions would be the final outcome from the Danish release, he has no doubts that his next feature will sell at least 200,000 tickets: the sequel to All for One. Starring Mick Øgendahl, Rasmus Bjerg and Jonatan Spang, Heide's All for Two will be launched on February 7, 2013.