18/07/2012 - After Easy Money was launched in the US last week, Nordisk Film prepares the domestic opening of Swedish director Babak Najafi follow-up on the 2010 thriller

For the first time, a Swedish distributor has started presales for a new film a month before the opening - on Friday (July 20) Sweden’s Nordisk Film will release tickets for Swedish director Babak Najafi’s Easy Money II [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which will reach cinemas on Friday, August 17.

“The advance interest for the thriller is huge, so we have wanted to give audiences the possibility of buying tickets well ahead of the premiere,” explained head of distribution Pia Grünler, of Nordisk Film Distribution, which handles the local release.

The first adaption of Swedish lawyer-turned-author Jens Lapidus’s Stockholm Noir novels, Swedish director Daniél Espinosa’s Easy Money [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2010) reached 620,000 admissions domestically, was sold to more than 30 countries and paved the way to Hollywood for Espinosa and lead actor Joel Kinnamon.

Kinnamon also stars in the sequel as JW, a poor young student who is familiar with both the wealthy Stockholm elite and organised crime. Serving four years in prison, he has decided he will return to an honest life, when a man from his past returns to pull off a giant coke deal and changes everything.

The cast for Easy Money II includes Matias Varela, Dragomir Mric and Fares Fares. Peter Birro and Maria Karlsson scripted the story of “greed, friendship and forgiveness,” which Fredrik Wikström produced for Tre Vänner Produktion. Denmark’s TrustNordisk is in charge of international sales.

While American producer Warner Bros is preparing a remake of Easy Money, the Swedish original was launched in the US last week (July 11-13) by The Weinstein Company, under the 'Martin Scorsese Presents' banner. Tre Vänner has an Easy Money III in pre-production, to be directed by Sweden’s Jens Jonsson.