15/11/2006

The highly anticipated adaptation of one of the most beloved Dutch children’s books will hit screens today in the Netherlands. With Crusade in Jeans [+see also:
trailer
film profile], based on the 1973 Thea Beckman novel, director Ben Sombogaart returns to children’s fare after his Oscar-nominated adult drama Twin Sisters.

The English-language film stars newcomer Joe Flynn as a 15 year-old football player who wants to use a time machine to make up for a lost match but gets transported back to the 11th century and the great children’s crusade instead.

The €10.5m European co-production was filmed in Luxembourg, Germany and Croatia and involved hundreds of underage extras to recreate the flocks of children on their trek to Jerusalem. Besides Flynn and the young Stephanie Leonidas, the film also stars Emily Watson, Michael Culkin, Belgian veteran Jan Decleir and Germans Benno Fürmann and Udo Kier.

The film is being released by BFD on a staggering 131 screens (107 subtitled; 24 dubbed in Dutch). Parental advisory was put at nine years, a newly invented category between the ages of six and 12 that should help the film reach a wider audience. Crusade in Jeans will likely surpass Afblijven (lit. “Hands Off!”) as the most seen children’s film of the year.

The latter film (also based on a popular book) is currently in its seventh week of release and has grossed almost €2m. Tie-ins with the release include a video game and a film edition of the novel (currently in its 76th edition).

Crusade in Jeans was produced by Kees Kasander for Kasander Film and Bill Haney for Kasander (Crusade) Ltd, and co-produced by Marmont Film (Belgium), Focus Films (Hungary), Intuit Pictures (Germany) and Delux Productions (Luxembourg).

International sales are being handled by Celsius Entertainments.