02/06/2016 - Liam Neeson is to star in Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s Hard Powder, the international remake of his own local hit, In Order of Disappearance

Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland, who most recently made the Danish thriller A Conspiracy of Faith [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2016) – Zentropa Entertainments’ part three in the Jussi Adler-Olsen/Department Q series, which has reached 700,000 admissions domestically – is set to return to his local 2014 hit and latest Norwegian feature, In Order of Disappearance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hans Petter Moland
film profile], but this time in English.

Norwegian producers Finn Gjerdrum and Stein Kvae, of Oslo’s Paradox, are currently preparing Hard Powder, an international remake of the action-comedy scripted by Danish screenwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson, also to be directed by Moland and starring Irish actor Liam Neeson (Oscar-nominated in 1994 for Schindler’s List; also appearing in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, among countless other movies). Paradox’s partners include France’s StudioCanal and US producer Michael Shamberg, who has twice been nominated for an Oscar (for The Big Chill in 1983 and Erin Brockovich in 2000), but who also has Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained under his belt.

In the original version, Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård starred as the driver of a snow blower, living a carefree life in a remote Norwegian winter paradise, until his son’s sudden death puts him in the middle of a drug war between the local mafia and the Serbian mob, armed only with heavy machinery and beginner’s luck. Co-starring Norwegian actor Pål Sverre Hagen, Danish actress Birgitte Hjort Sørensen and Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, In Order of Disappearance was screened at 13 international film festivals, including in competition at the Berlinale. 

In US screenwriter Frank Baldwin’s 2016 version, the Norwegian locations at Beitostølen will be replaced by the exclusive skiing resort of Aspen, Colorado, and the gangster groups will be better known to international audiences.

Before this, however, Moland will film Out Stealing Horses, an adaptation of Norwegian author Per Petterson’s award-winning 2003 novel, for Norwegian producers Turid Øversveen and Karin Julsrud, of Oslo-based 4½ (read the news).