02/10/2013 - Swedish production outfit Tre Vänner revives the Swedish franchise The Johnsson Gang in a new feature inspired by Ocean's Eleven and The Sting

Swedish production outfit Tre Vänner (since October 1 part of Swedish major, Svensk Filmindustry) will revive the characters from the successful Johnson Gang franchise – eight Swedish features produced between 1981-2000, continued as The Young Johnson Gang – for Swedish director Alain Darborg’s (photo) feature debut, Mastermind, which will shoot from the end of this month (October).

Most recently credited with the Easy Money [+see also:
trailer
film profile] trilogy, Swedish producer Fredrik Wikstrom Nicastro has signed Swedish actors Simon J Berger, Torkel Petersson, Alexander Karim and Susanne Thorson for “the heist movie in the vein of Ocean's Eleven and The Sting."

“One of my best cinema experiences in recent years was Casino Royale with Daniel Craig. I couldn’t understand I had just seen a James Bond movie, everything old and dorky was gone – this was a modern and cool film with real-life characters and emotions. We have a great love for the old Johnson Gang, but this is a new beginning, with a total reboot,” Nicastro said.

Originally created by the Danish director-writer team of Erik Balling and Henning Bahs, the first Olsen-banden series included 14 features produced by Danish major Nordisk Film between 1968-1998. A fully-animated version was launched in 2010, and the sequel, Danish director Jørgen Lerdam’s The Olsen Gang in Deep Trouble, will be released on October 10.

Both the Swedish (Jönssonligan) and Norwegian (Olsenbanden) remakes, depicting the adventures of three small-time crooks with big money dreams, were based on Balling-Bahs’ scripts – in Norway the 14 original titles were followed by six films about The Junior Olsen Gang (2003-2010). Mastermind, about a theft that fails and the gang leader who is falsely accused of murder, will be ready for spring 2015.