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RELEASES Belgium

W. (Witse de Film), another champion of the small screen

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- Following the considerable success of FC De Kampioenen, another star of the Flemish small screen is making the leap to cinema: superintendent W. Witse

W. (Witse de Film), another champion of the small screen

This Wednesday, Belgian theatres see the release of W. (Witse de Film), the big-screen adaptation of the cult television series of the same name, which was broadcast on VRT (the Flemish public TV channel) from January 2004 to April 2012. Over some 117 episodes and nine seasons, superintendent W. Witse, an old lone wolf, drew many Flemish viewers to their TV screens for each of his adventures, doubling audience-figure records and gaining 60-65% of the market share (the equivalent of around 1,850,000 people). The face that will be arriving on screens this week will therefore be more than familiar to Flemish viewers. In addition, during the leap from small to big screen, everything has turned darker. Even though he is now retired, the past still catches up with W. (played by Hubert Damen, a classically trained theatre actor who was snatched away by TV). One fine day, his sister, whom he has not seen for 30 years, comes knocking on his door and tells him that her daughter has been murdered. W. finds himself plunged into the heart of a murky investigation to find the sadistic serial killer who targeted his niece.

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The film sees the character’s creator, Wand Hulselmans, returning to the helm, and Frank Van Mechelen is once again behind the camera. He is a regular director for the company Skyline, which is producing the film, as it did for the series. Skyline has just enjoyed considerable success with the movie FC De Kampioenen, which was also an adaptation of a cult series in Flanders and was a veritable box-office smash. Released in late December 2013, FC De Kampioenen is already the ninth most-seen Flemish film of all time, having taken 545,000 admissions.

Independent Films is handling the release and is distributing the title in a respectable 26 theatres throughout Flanders and Brussels. We’ll have to wait a few weeks to see whether W. will be the first big Belgian success of the year. 

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(Translated from French)

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