12/02/2012

Royalty is highly rated in Danish cinema: While Danish director Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mikkel Boe Følsgaard
interview: Nikolaj Arcel
film profile] about an 18th century court scandal is screening in competition at the 62nd Berlinale, Danish producer Mikael Rieks, of Cosmo Film, is at the European Film Market packaging his next project, The Tatooed King, for a late 2013-early 2014 shoot.

King Frederik IX (pictured - 1899-1972, crowned in 1947) – the father of Queen Margrethe II – redefined the word of popularity. According to anecdotes he preferred to drink an honest pint with the common man instead of moving in higher circles. The Danes called him the Sailor King and the Tatooed King (yes, also a dragon tattoo!), they took him for one of the people and respected him for restoring their ”national self” after five years of Nazi occupation.

”It will be a biopic where writer and director may interpret and invent within the historical and factual context,” said Rieks, who would not yet put names to neither – nor to the cast. But he found the king the obvious subject for a film because of his interesting and diverse personality: trained in the navy, a highly decorated admiral, who was also a very musical person who conducted symphony orchestras.

Yet untitled the film will follow a short period of is life, beginning with his father’s death shortly after the German occupation, and thus the story of post-war Denmark – a time of disillusionment - as seen through the eyes of the king. It also depicts his dispute with his brother about royal succession, which was altered in favour of his daughter, the present queen.

In 2011 Rieks’ latest production, Martin P Zandvliet’s A Funny Man [+see also:
trailer
film profile], sold 484,000 tickets in domestic release, to be second on the charts only to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile]. Starring Nikolaj Lie Kaas, the biopic of Danish top comedian Dirch Passer was earlier this month (February 5) awarded six Robert awards by the Danish Film Academy.