21/01/2016 - On 21 March, Erik Van Looy will begin the shoot for his next feature, De Premier, starring such names as Koen De Bouw

Actor Koen De Bouw

The shoot for the next film by Erik Van Looy, De Premier [+see also:
trailer
film profile], looks set to get under way this spring. Following his experiment in the States, which was not exactly a walk in the park (indeed, Van Looy directed the remake of his own film Loft [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a smash hit at the Belgian box office), Van Looy is now back in familiar territory. He is trying his hand at a subject that should pique quite a bit of interest, a political thriller about a plan to assassinate the president of the Unites States, which will be perpetrated by none other than the Belgian prime minister. The latter, who has been kidnapped by a terrorist group, will only be released on one tiny condition: he must carry out the aforementioned murder.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

To step into the shoes of the Belgian premier, Erik Van Looy will turn to an actor he knows very well. Indeed, Koen De Bouw (who is currently appearing on screens in Brother [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the new film by Geoffrey Enthoven) has already played the lead roles for the director in Van Looy’s two Belgian films, Loft and The Alzheimer Case [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. A final decision still hasn’t been made about who will play the president of the USA, but at the moment it seems that this character will in fact be female. They will be joined by such names as Tine Reymer (who will play the prime minister’s wife), Charlotte Vandermeersch (who is shortly to be seen in Belgica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Artemio Benki, Sylvie Leray
interview: Felix Van Groeningen
film profile]), Dirk Roofthooft, Stijn Van Opstal and Wim Willaert, who will be duking it out for the Magritte Award for Best Actor in a few days’ time, for his role in Je suis mort mais j’ai des amis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume and Stéphane Mala…
film profile]. 

In order to guarantee that the project is believable, Van Looy has apparently called upon Yves Leterme, a former Belgian prime minister, for advice. De Premier will be produced by FBO, the new outfit founded by Hilde De Laere, and co-produced with Woestijnvis and Mill Street Films. The movie is being backed by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund and Screen Flanders. It will be distributed in Belgium by Kinepolis Film Distribution, which has announced a release date of 26 October 2016. The film will in all likelihood send the counters at the Belgian box office crazy, just like the two previous movies by the director, and in light of the excellent results racked up recently by Flemish cinema. 

(Translated from French)