07/02/2008

Dutch arthouse director Martin Koolhoven moved into the mainstream with the contemporary comedy Schnitzel Paradise [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martin Khoolhoven
interview: Mimoun Oaïssa
film profile] (see Focus) and will next team up with San Fu Maltha, the producer of Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book [+see also:
trailer
film profile], for another WWII story: Winter in Wartime.

Based on the bestselling, semi-autobiographical children’s novel from writer and ex-politician Jan Terlouw, Winter in Wartime tells the story of a 14-year-old boy who in the winter of 1944-45 is asked to deliver a letter from the Resistance and gets into trouble when the man he should deliver the letter to turns out to be dead.

Newcomer Martin Lakemeijer will play the boy, while upcoming English talent Jamie Campbell Bower, recently on screen in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, will play the pivotal part of a British RAF soldier. “I was absolutely thrilled to get the part, and I can’t wait to start work on such an exciting project,” said Campbell Bower.

The cast also includes Anneke Blok (Love is All [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Tiramisu), Tygo Gernandt (Golden Calf winner for Schnitzel Paradise), Raymond Thiry and Melody Klaver. The latter two were previously seen together in David Lammers’ Northern Light [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Lammers
interview: Jeroen Beker
film profile] (see Focus).

Shooting is scheduled to start in Lithuania on Monday before moving to various locations in the Netherlands.

Winter in Wartime is the first co-production between Fu Maltha’s Fu Works and Els Vandevorst of Dutch outfit Isabella Films. The film will be made with backing from the Dutch Film Fund, Dutch broadcasting network Max, Inspire Pictures and Belgian production company Prime Time.

It will be distributed by Benelux Film Distributors for Inspire Pictures in December.