10/02/2005 - The most active film production company has just bought the rights for The Virgin Blue, the best-selling novel by Tracy Chevalier and will be looking for European co-production partners on this ambitious project

The most active film production/distribution of Swedish films has announced a list of new international projects as part of a whole new strategy to develop and increase relationships with worldwide partners.

The first project is the co-production of the English language film A Perfect Family with US independent company Sound Pictures, the New-York based outfit who produced The Assassination of Richard Nixon. This new project will be the first feature film of theatre director Matthew Allen, born in San Francisco and trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. The comedy-drama about a family ready to implode is scripted by Allen and produced by Joakim Hansson for Sonet Film. Other financial partners include Film i Väst, TV3 and The Chimney Pot. The film will start shooting next April in Los Angeles and will then move to Trollhättan studios in Sweden. Sonet Film will release it in Sweden in January 2006.

Still in the US, Sonet Films has sold to Spyglass Pictures the remake rights to the thriller The Invisible(Den osynlige) based on a novel by Mats Wahl. The US remake will be directed by David Goyer, script-writer specialized in horror/thriller movies such as the Blade series and The Crow.

On the European front, Peter Possne, head of Sonet Films, has just bought the rights for The Virgin Blue, the best-selling novel by Tracy Chevalier (Girl With a Pearl Earring) and will be looking for European co-production partners on this ambitious project. It tells the gripping story of two women over different periods of time and setting. One is set in 1560, the other 400 years later, but the women’s destinies will eventually cross and come together.

Another project to be filmed in Sarajevo in spring 2006 is Jasenko Selimovic’s screen adaptation of his own play Romeo And Julia. Selimovic, an established theatre director and artistic director for Göteborg’s Stadsteatre will make his directorial debut with this project.

In Sweden where Sonet Films has successfully teamed with local producer Lars Jönsson (Memfis Film & TV) to release Lukas Moodysson and Joseph Fares’ films, the distribution arm is currently enjoying fantastic business with Memfis’ Dalecarlians (Masjävlar), still number one after 8 weeks as well as the Oscar nominated film As It Is In Heaven(Så son I himmelen), number 4 after 23 weeks with over 1,3 m admissions.