25/02/2013 - Danish director Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair did not win the Oscar yesterday – but he didn't leave empty-handed: he has signed contracts to do three US movies, including The Power of the Dog

Danish director Nikolaj Arcel (photo) may have missed out this year on the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Feature, as yesterday (February 24) it went to Austrian director Michael Haneke’s Amour and not his own A Royal Affair [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mikkel Boe Følsgaard
interview: Nikolaj Arcel
film profile] – but his Hollywood exercise has been more than worthwhile: he has negotiated contracts for three US features.

“My colleague Susanne Bier came back empty-handed from her first nomination – she won the Oscar two years later (In a Better World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2011). Of course I will also return; competition will be different, and I may have made a better film. I have plenty of time,” Arcel told Danish press.

Arcel, who is currently living in Los Angeles with his writer partner Rasmus Heisterberg, where they are working on the scripts for Zentropa Entertainments’ Jussi Adler-Olsen’s franchise, has previously announced his next film will be an adaption of US author Don Winslow’s best-selling novel The Power of the Dog.

But he has also concluded deals with another two Hollywood studios to “two other, very different films, which I can unfortunately not disclose yet; I specifically told my agent it shouldn’t be thrillers, because The Power of the Dog was the one I wanted, so why make something alike, but not so good?” he said.

Meanwhile Danish international sales agency TrustNordisk has licensed A Royal Affair for Italian distribution through Academy Two, which “has a great tradition of releasing Oscar nominees and winners such as Mephisto, Crying Game, My Left Foot and The Counterfeiters,” per ceo Vania Traxler.

Produced by Louise Vesth, Sisse Graum Jørgensen, and Meta LouiseFoldager for Zentropa Entertainments, the historical drama has sold 528,000 tickets domestically, and has broken records for a Danish film in the UK, Australia and France. TrustNordisk as signed distribution deals for more than 80 countries.