27/03/2013 - Tommy Wirkola is ready to unleash another horde of Nazi zombies in Dead Snow: War of the Dead, the sequel to his 2009 movie, which has already sold to 20 countries

“I cannot wait to unleash another horde of Nazi zombies on to the world again,” said Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola (photo), whose first Hollywood movie, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters [+see also:
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film profile] has now exceeded €162 million box-office since its January 25 release.

With his producer partner Kjetil Omberg, Wirkola is currently in pre-production with a sequel to Dead Snow, his 2009 horror comedy, which was launched at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at more than 10 international showcases.

During this year’s European Film Market in Berlin, Omberg announced the project, and from the script (by Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen, Vegar Hoel) he sold the film to 20 territories, including the UK (Entertainment One) and Germany (Splendid Film).

Dead Snow: War of the Dead “will be bigger, scarier, funnier, more action-filled an gorier than No 1,” declared Wirkola, whose original followed a group of medical students on a skiing holiday who find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.

In the new film – which will be shot both with a Norwegian and English dialogue – the sole survivor of Nazi zombie assault fights an even larger crowd of living deads, but now with the help of the Zombie Squad, a posse of professional zombie killers from the US.

Omberg will produce with Terje Strømstad for Tappeluft Pictures, and principal photography will start this summer in northern Norway for a 2014 release. Henriksen, who has been in Wirkola’s films since Kill Buljo: The Movie (2007), will play the lead with Hoel.

Meanwhile US cable network Showtime – the station behind such television series as Dexter and Homeland – is preparing a pilot for a remake of Hellfjord, Wirkola’s seven-part “fusion of Hot Fuzz and Twin Peaks,” which unspooled at 2012’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.