Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to “King’s Land,” a period epic movie reuniting “A Royal Affair” helmer Nikolaj Arcel with Mads Mikkelsen. Sold by TrustNordisk, the film is produced by Danish production powerhouse Zentropa.
Arcel penned the script with Anders Thomas Jensen who most recently collaborated with Mikkelsen on the action-thriller film “Riders of Justice.” Both films were released by Magnolia. “King’s Land” is set to start production this summer.
“King’s Land” will mark Arcel’s first Danish film since “A Royal Affair” which also starred Mikkelsen and earned an Oscar nomination, two awards at the Berlinale, as well as sold to over 80 territories.
Set to start shooting on Sept. 5 in Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic, the movie will also be headlined by the Danish actress Amanda Collin, who most recently starred in Ridley Scott’s HBO Max drama series “Raised by Wolves” and “A Horrible Woman.”
The film is produced by Louise Vesth (“The House that Jack Built”), Denmark’s top producer whose delivered five Danish features in the last 10 years which sold over 700,000 tickets locally.
“King’s Land” is based on the Danish bestseller “Kaptajnen og Ann Barbara” (“The Captain and Ann Barbara”). TrustNordisk described “King’s Land” as a “gripping drama about the conquest of the Danish heath.”
The project is set in the mid-1700’s and will revolve around the Danish King Frederik V who “declared that the wild heath of Jutland should be tamed, cultivated, and colonized so that civilization could spread and new taxes be generated for the royal house,” said TrustNordisk which is presenting the script to buyers at Cannes and has already pre-sold it to Germany (Koch Films), France (The Jokers Films), Benelux (September Films) and Hungary (Vertigo Media).
“We’re truly excited to be back in business with Nikolaj, Anders Thomas and Mads,” said Magnolia Pictures President Eamonn Bowles. “This is a momentous project and we can’t wait to bring it to audiences.”
Arcel said he “had the great pleasure of working with the amazing Magnolia team on “A Royal Affair” and is “beyond thrilled that they’ve boarded ‘King’s Land’ at this early stage,” added the helmer.
The film is produced by Zentropa Entertainments ApS, in co-production with Zentropa Berlin GmbH, Zentropa Sweden AB, in cooperation with TV2 Denmark, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, SVT and Koch Films. Film i Väst co-produced with the support from Danish Film Institute Markedsordningen, Eurimages, Den Vestdanske Filmpulje, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Czech Film Fund and Swedish Film Institute. Developed by the Creative Europe Media Programme – Media of the European Union.
The deal was negotiated by John Von Thaden and Dori Begley at Magnolia, and Susan Wendt at TrustNordisk on behalf of the filmmakers.