20/06/2006

Production is booming at Film i Väst’s Trollywood, or Trollhättan, or Western Sweden’s popular regional film centre, with 16 new feature films announced for the summer and fall and a total of 19 films co-produced by FiV thus far in 2006, including 10 European co-productions.

Boosted by the implementation of the new Film Agreement for 2006-2010 and the arrival of new film consultants at the Swedish Film Institute, Film I Väst – which provides up to one third of a film’s budget if it is shot in the region of Western Sweden – continues to co-finance half of Sweden’s annual production input and has also seriously increased its involvement in European co-productions. More than half of the films co-produced in 2006 have European production partners.

Captain Achab, based on the infamous captain of Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick and set to start shooting next month, will be the first French film co-produced by FiV. Starring Denis Lavant and Mathieu Amalric, the film, directed by Philippe Ramos, is being produced by Sesame Films in France with Sweden’s DFM Fiktion. Triangel Film will release it in Sweden.

Control, the feature debut of Dutch rock photographer Anton Corbijn, will be produced by London-based Kate Osborn (The Bureau) with Sweden’s Helena Danielsson (Hepp Film). The biopic on former Joy Division singer Ian Curtis is being sold by Becker Films International. Danielsson is also attached to a co-production with Finland’s Blindspot Productions: Aleksi Salmenperä’s A Man’s Job, now in post-production.

Memfis Film, a regular partner of FiV, Swedish distributor/producer Sonet Film and Denmark’s Zentropa Film will team up with them on Lars von Trier’s upcoming The Boss of it All and Jacob Thuesen’s Erik Nietzsche: The Early Years, a Danish/Swedish/German/French co-production, while Nordisk Film will produce the Swedish/Danish film Den man äskar (lit. “The One You Love”) by Åke Sandgren, based on a script by Kim Fupz Aakeson.

The prolific Danish screenwriter is also attached to another FiV co-production that just finished shooting: 2. omgang by Norwegian filmmaker Hilde Heijer, a Norwegian/Swedish/Danish co-production. Norway’s Peter Næss will join in with his new film Hoppet, a Swedish/Norwegian/German co-production.