Magnolia Pictures may have made the best pickup of the
year when they bought rights to Morten Tyldum's adaptation of Jo Nesbø's
Headhunters at the European Film Market. The assumption by many when the deal was announced was that Headhunters was a throw-in to a larger purchase given that it came in a package with Lars Von Trier's Melancholia but those people clearly hadn't seen the footage shown in the market.
Scandinavia
is on a ridiculous hot streak when it comes to classy, high end action
thrillers right now. With a seemingly never ending supply of brilliant
crime novels to draw on, the past years have brought us adaptations of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Snabba Cash (Easy Money), both of which triggered international bidding wars and sparked immediate remakes. Headhunters is the next to follow that path.
Jo
Nesbø is one of the most popular crime novelists in the region, one who
has been resistant to adapting his works in the past but agreed this
time thanks to the persistence and savvy approach by producers. Though
it hasn't released anywhere yet the combination of Nesbo's source
material, a huge star in Max Manus lead Aksel Hennie and a very
solid director in Tyldum have led to sky high expectations at home while
the reel of raw material in Berlin led to immediate worldwide sales.
And, yes. Though nobody is saying to who, yet, the Hollywood remake
rights have already been sold. What's it all about?
As I say in the headline, I think this may
very well be the best trailer released so far in 2011. It's certainly in
the top three.