MARCH/APRIL 2017 NEWS

04.01.17

For Stellan fans who are awaiting a US release of RETURN TO MONTAUK, there is no word yet on a distributor. The film was screened at the Belgrade Film Festival on March 4th and will be screened this week at the Istanbul Film Festival. As of this date, it is scheduled for a German release on May 11, 2017.

Here are a couple more interesting photos. The one on the left shows Stellan during filming in Babelsberg Studio in Germany and the right one was taken at Berlinale.

03.16.17

A new project for Stellan! Director/scriptwriter/producer Václav Marhoul starts shooting THE PAINTED BIRD in Volyn, Ukraine on March 23, 2017. The screenplay is an adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s bestseller and is a coproduction between the Czech Republic, the Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland. The film stars Czech 9-year-old Petr Kotlár alongside Stellan, Udo Kier and Harvey Keitel. The international cast also includes Lech Dyblik (Poland), Nina Šunevič and Ala Sakalova (Ukraine), Aleksei Kravchenko (Russia) and Petr Vaněk and Jitka Čvančarová (Czech Republic).

Marhoul has said that he was intrigued by the story, and managed to get the license for the adaptation signed in 2010. He spent three years writing the script, producing seventeen different versions written in collaboration with eight playwrights, and the project received a Special Mention award from the ScripTeast programme at Cannes in 2013. He also told the press, "In accordance with the author's non-specific localization of the story described as 'somewhere in Eastern Europe', we decided not to use any of the existing languages for the film's dialogue. That's why an artificial language was created – the so called Neo-slavonian – and the dialogues, which altogether represent only some 10 minutes of the whole film, will be synchronized afterwards."

The synopsis reads, "Trying to protect their child during WWII, a Jewish couple send their son to a relative in the countryside somewhere in Eastern Europe. But the boy’s aunt dies unexpectedly and he is forced to set out on a lone journey through the hostile world governed by local rules, prejudices and superstitions. When the war ends, his fight for physical survival is replaced by a different kind of a fight."

With a budget of 5.9 million euros, the film will begin shooting on March 23. With 105 shooting days planned, the production will be split into six phases with filming taking place in Slovakia, in the Czech Republic and, for the final phase, in the Polish town of Świebodzice in June 2018. The budget of the project is €5.8 million and the final film should be unveiled in May 2019, before going on general release in Slovak and Czech cinemas in September 2019.

As previously reported, Stellan's film, IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE (Kraftidioten), is being remade in an American version starring Liam Neeson. The revenge thriller will be called "Hard Powder". The synopsis reads, "A well-liked snowplow driver in a Colorado ski town discovers his son has been murdered. To get his revenge, he uses his special set of skills to take out the local drug cartel and its kingpin. Believe it or not, the director is Hans Petter Moland who directed the original film! Personally, I always prefer the international original to an American re-make. What comes to mind immediately is "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" even though our Swedish star was in the re-make with a top-notch performance. If only Stellan had been cast in the original with the awesome Michael Nyqvist!

After over two decades of delays, roadblocks, and production hiccups, Terry Gilliam's THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE has officially begun shooting. The film is based on the book, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, wherein an old man gets swept up in his romantic stories and goes insane, eventually trying to revive chivalry and knighthood. In this film, an advertising executive, played by Adam Driver, jumps back and forth in time between 21st-century London and 17th-century Spain, where Don Quixote, played by Jonathan Pryce, mistakes him for his compatriot, Sancho Panza. Olga Kurylenko and Stellan are also attached in supporting roles.  Production is taking place in Lisbon and Tomar. Scenes will also be filmed in Castilla-La Mancha and the Canary Islands. An 2018 release date has been set.

He also gave his thoughts on acting - "I don’t feel comfortable playing anything. I find it extremely painful every time, but I really try to find things that I haven’t done before, and especially finding films that haven’t been made before, and this is really hard. Most of the scripts you see, you say, OK, I’ve seen that, and I’ve seen that, and I’ve seen that. They might change the clothes or the professions of the characters, but it’s the same f**king film again and again. Lars Von Trier said something interesting to me the other day. He said, “Oh Stellan, I know what kinds of films I’m doing now.” And I said, OK, so what kind is it? He told me he was doing the missing films. He wants to do the films that are missing in the history of cinema. And I think that’s really good. Modest as always!"