03/06/2013 - Before unveiling Marina, Stijn Coninx announces that he is working on the screenplay of a film on the Brabant massacres, which traumatised Belgium in the 1980's

Stijn Coninx has announced that he is currently working on De Bende van Nijvel, a movie project devoted to a gang of killers in Nivelles (a town in French-speaking Belgium). Also known as the "Killers of Le Brabant", they were responsible for a particularly bloody series of armed attacks and violent hold-ups which took place in the 1980's in Belgium, but also in northern France. From 1982 to 1985, people lived in terror as they continued their atrocities. At least 28 people lost their lives in bloody hold-ups, the murder of children, and three especially violent attacks on supermarkets.

The screenplay will be based on the book Ne tirez pas, c’est mon papa, written by David Van de Steen, who survived one of the killings but witnessed his parents and sister die before his eyes. Coninx will enlist the writing talents of Rik D’Hiet who recently worked on Zot van A and the series Het Godelijke Monster, but above all, on Marina, the next film by Stijn Coninx.

Coninx should also be working again with Jan Decleir, his actor in Daens, expected to play the part of little David's grand-father. The film will be produced by Peter Bouckaert for Eyeworks (which has just completed shooting of Het Vonnis by Jan Verheyen, and begun that of De Behandeling by Hans Herbot). The team hopes to film in 2015.

Meanwhile, we will have discovered Marina, Stijn Coninx's next movie, a biopic on Rocco Granata, the young Italian singer living in Belgium who became famous worldwide in the late 1950's with his hit Marina. Produced by Eyemorks and coproduced by Les Films du Fleuve and Oriza Produzioni, with the backing of the VAF, CCA, VRT and RTBF, the film will be distributed by Kinepolis. Its release is scheduled for November 6th this year. 

(Translated from French)