09/11/2006

Roar Uthaug is the new Norwegian kid in town with the golden touch: the director who made his first axe murderer film at age 13 has managed to share his passion for horror films with 203,667 movie-goers who have come en masse to see his feature debut Cold Prey (Fritt Vilt), released three weeks ago by SF.

Thanks to last Saturday’s half-price tickets, offered as part of the yearly promotional “Big Film Day” (“Den store kinodagen”) organised by local exhibitors and distributors, another 13,500 youngsters aged 15 and over flocked to the cinemas to see the story of five youngsters trapped in a mountain hotel, playing cat and mouse with a notorious serial killer.

The film was the third most watched movie in Norwegian cinemas last weekend, after Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and Japanese horror film The Grudge 2, and is now the third most popular Norwegian film of the year after local comedy Playing Wide (258,297 admissions) and children’s film The Junior Olsen Gang at the Circus (243,159).

Starring a cast of mostly newcomers (apart from Victoria Winge, seen in Joachim Trier’s acclaimed Reprise [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
interview: Karin Julsrud
film profile]), the film was scripted by Thomas Moldestad from a story he co-wrote with Uthaug, line producer Jan Eirik Langøen and producers Martin Sundland and Magne Lyngner from Fante Film. SF Norge acted as co-producer with Helgelandfilm, and SF International is handling international sales.

Oslo-based Fante Film first hired Uthaug in 2002 as a director for commercial films and music videos. Other in-house directors working at Fante include Stefan Faldbakken, who was launched in Cannes this year with his feature debut Uro [+see also:
trailer
film profile], selected at Un Certain Regard.