22/07/2008

Iceland’s star actor/director Baltasar Kormákur is currently filming in New Mexico his second English-language film with a star studded cast that includes Diane Kruger, Dermot Mulroney, Sam Shepard, Jordi Mollà and Vincent Perez.

Run For Her Life, which started filming in the US on June 15 and wraps on July 26, is a dramatic thriller about Paul Stanton (Mulroney), a successful D.A. on the path to political office who becomes entrenched in a dangerous situation while trying to save the life of his eight-year-old daughter in desperate need of a lung transplant. The $6.8m film is produced by Michelle Chydzik Sowa for 26 Films (The Wedding Date) in the US, with Kormákur’s own company Blueeyes Productions acting as co-producer.

Post-production will take place in Iceland and Icelandic DoP Ottar G. Gudnasson, who collaborated on Kormakur’s first English-language film, A Little Trip to Heaven [+see also:
trailer
film profile], joins the director on this new US shoot, as well as editor Elisabeth Ronaldsdottir (Jar City [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). The International sales agent is US-based Echo Bridge, who pre-sold the project to Germany’s Splendid Films during this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Meanwhile, Kormákur’s 2006 local hit Jar City is having an “extended life”, according to Blueeyes’ producer Agnes Johansen. The multiple award-winning film will be released almost simultaneously in France (Memento Films, August 27), Denmark (Scanbox, August 29) and in the UK on September 12 (The Works).

Kormákur’s top grossing film in Iceland in 2008, White Night Wedding [+see also:
trailer
film profile], sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams, will start its international career at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it will screen in the Contemporary World Cinema section, and Reykjavik-Rotterdam in which Kormákur stars for fellow filmmaker Oskar Jonasson (Remote Control), will be ready for domestic release mid-September.