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The Nightwatch Collection from Arrow Video

Nightwatch and Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever will be released on Blu-ray together as The Nightwatch Collection on July 22 via Arrow Video.

1994’s Nightwatch is a Danish horror-thriller written and directed by Ole Bornedal (who also helmed the 1997 American remake). Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sofie Gråbøl, Kim Bodnia, Lotte Andersen, and Ulf Pilgaard star.

Nightwatch special features include: commentary by Bornedal; an interview with director of photography Dan Laustsen; an appreciation by film critic Barry Forshaw; a making-of documentary; and the trailer

Bornedal also wrote and directed the 2023 sequel Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever. Coster-Waldau, Pilgaard, and Bodnia return to star with Fanny Leander Bornedal, Paprika Steen, and Sonja Richter.

Demons Are Forever...

There is no denying that love can make people do wild things, but Loving Adults takes it to a whole other level. The Nordic thriller goes all the way as it asks audiences what happens when love stews into something dark, calculating, and dangerously obsessive. The answer? Nothing good. At the center of the narrative are Christian (Dar Salim) and Leonora (Sonja Richter), a couple with their marriage on the rocks. Involved in an affair, Christian plans to leave his wife for his mistress, but he’s dead wrong in every sense of the word if he thinks she’ll go down without a fight. The back and forth that ensues isn’t just toxic; it’s unreal, and making it even more puzzling is the fact that no one spouse is the clear villain.

Ti West began his career as an independent filmmaker in the early 2000s, slowly climbing the industry ranks to become more mainstream. Although firmly steeped in the low-budget horror genre early in his career, West has graduated to bigger-budget commercial projects, including cable TV shows The Exorcist, The Resident, and most recently, the X trilogy. While steeped in the horror genre, the most off-brand movie West has made thus far in his career is the 2016 western In A Valley of Violence, starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta.

Although In A Valley of Violence is inspired by several movie westerns, in 2014, West professed his undying admiration for a little-known western called The Homesman, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones. To trace the dramatic roots of In a Valley of Violence, it's worth exploring what drew West to The Homesman, why he feels it's such a great must-see movie, and perhaps most importantly,...

Quick Links What Is The Homesman About? What Was Tommy Lee Jones' Role In Making The Homesman? Can You Stream The Homesman?

The Homesman is an often-forgotten film that revitalizes Westerns in modern cinema. The "Western" was once the most popular genre in Hollywood, dominating American movies for multiple decades of the 20th century. First popularized during the silent film era, Westerns only grew more popular as filmmaking continued to improve. The 1940s through the 1960s proved to be a Golden Era for the genre, with stars like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood emerging as common leads for such films. However, the sheer abundance of Westerns in Hollywood eventually led to its steady decline, until the genre was all but extinct. Thankfully, certain filmmakers in recent years have taken it upon themselves to revive the genre, though some of the best new Westerns often go under the radar of general audiences.

Thirty years after introducing viewers to a sadistic serial killer in the Danish horror film Nightwatch (aka Nattevagten), writer/director Ole Bornedal has returned to the world of his harrowing film with the sequel Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever. Easily one of my favorite films of the year thus far, Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is a relentlessly tense examination of the damaging effects of unresolved trauma on families, the painful healing of the grieving process, and how the past can literally come back to haunt you... with something sharp in its hands.

Featuring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kim Bodnia, and Ulf Pilgaard reprising their roles from the original Nightwatch alongside a talented roster of actors who are new to this franchise, Demons Are Forever is now streaming on Shudder, and Daily Dead caught up with writer/director Ole Bornedal to discuss continuing the story of Nightwatch 30 years later, exploring the aftereffects of violent trauma through his film's characters,...

The Homesman is a brutal look at American frontier life in the 1850s, showcasing harsh realities and unrelenting struggles. Lead performances by Swank and Jones shine in this underrated Western, exploring themes of isolation and mental illness. The film's bleak ending highlights the unforgiving nature of the frontier, resonating with modern discussions on mental health.

Co-written, directed by, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, The Homesman is an unflinching period western exploring the cruel and unforgiving life on the American frontier in the mid-19th century. Based on the 1988 novel by Glendon Swarthout, the story concerns Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank), a New York educator searching for a better life in Nebraska Territory in the 1850s. When a trio of women who suffer from mental illness require Mary's assistance, she teams up with George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) to escort the afflicted to Hebron, Iowa.

With The Homesman celebrating its 10th anniversary this November,...

Back in 1994, long before he was cast to play Jaime Lannister in the hit series Game of Thrones, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau made his feature film debut in writer/director Ole Bornedal’s thriller Nightwatch, where he played a character named Martin, a law student who takes a job working as a night watchman at The Department of Forensic Medicine in Copenhagen just as the place starts filling up with the bodies of a serial killer’s victims. Now, thirty years after working on the original Nightwatch together, Bornedal and Coster-Waldau have re-teamed for a “30 years” later sequel called Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, which is set to be released through the Shudder streaming service on May 17th – and with that date just a month away, a trailer for the film has arrived online! You can check it out in the embed above.

Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever has the following synopsis: 22-year-old medical...

"Isn't that Wörmer's signature?" Shudder has revealed the official US trailer for the Danish horror mystery sequel Nightwatch 2, known as Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, from the same Danish filmmaker Ole Bornedal. Not to be confused with the two Russian movies Night Watch and Day Watch, this is not related - it's a new sequel to Bornedal's 1994 movie Nightwatch, which was remade into Nightwatch in 1997 with Ewan McGregor. The original also starred Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who has become considerably more famous after "Game of Thrones". In this sequel, Martin's daughter, Emma, takes up a night watch job to find out what happened to her parents almost thirty years ago. A meeting with Wörmer in his cell pulls the serial killer out of his coma and sets in motion a chain of fateful events. Starring Fanny Leander Bornedal, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kim Bodnia, Sonja Richter, Ulf Pilgaard, Casper Kjær Jensen, Paprika Steen, and Nina Rask.

Back in 1994, long before he was cast to play Jaime Lannister in the hit series Game of Thrones, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau made his feature film debut in the thriller Nightwatch, where he played a character named Martin, a law student who takes a job working as a night watchman at The Department of Forensic Medicine in Copenhagen just as the place starts filling up with the bodies of a serial killer’s victims. Nightwatch was so well-received that writer/director Ole Bornedal was given the opportunity to direct an English-language remake, which he wrote with Steven Soderbergh. Ewan McGregor played the Martin role in that 1997 film. Now, thirty years after working on the original Nightwatch together, Bornedal and Coster-Waldau have re-teamed for a “30 years” later sequel called Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, which is set to be released through the Shudder streaming service on May 17th!

Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever has the...

Dar Salim (The Covenant) has joined the cast of The Terminal List: Dark Wolf in the recurring role of Mohammed ‘Mo’ Farooq.

Mo is an Iraqi Special Operations Forces officer, formerly trained in the CIA Scorpions program. He was raised in a world of dictatorship and war. His mission is to strengthen his country and defend it against enemies without and within.

Co-created by The Terminal List author Jack Carr and Season 1 creator-showrunner David Digilio, the prequel, set five years before the mothership series, is an elevated espionage thriller that takes viewers on Ben Edwards’ (Taylor Kitsch) journey from Navy Seal to CIA paramilitary operator, exploring the darker side of warfare and the human cost that comes with it.

Tom Hopper, Luke Hemsworth, Chris Pratt and Jared Shaw also star.

In addition to starring in the series, Kitsch executive produces alongside Pratt through Indivisible Productions, Antoine Fuqua and Kat Samick,...

The thriller has sold to Germany and Austria (Capelight Pictures); Hungary (Vertigo Media); Benelux (September) and Middle East (Oceana).

TrustNordisk has closed a raft of deals on Ole Bornedal’s psychological thriller Nightwatch – Demons Are Forever.

The thriller has sold to Germany and Austria (Capelight Pictures); Hungary (Vertigo Media); Benelux (September) and Middle East (Oceana).

The story follows a young medical student who is on the nightwatch at a forensic department; she is haunted by her parents’ troubled past and the psychopath who destroyed their lives. She decides to wake the psychopath from his coma and awakens bloody revenge.

The...

"Loving Adults" adds a unique twist to the thriller genre with its unreliable narrator, questioning the truth of the events on screen. The film explores the depths of betrayal and murder within a crumbling relationship, keeping even the most cynical viewers engaged with its twists and turns. The ending of "Loving Adults" confirms its cynical themes and serves as a reminder that love is never perfect, but the daughter's decision to marry adds a touch of hope to the film's cynicism.

The Netflix-exclusive Danish thriller Loving Adults is so much more than simple love gone wrong tale, and it features an ending that is as vexing as it is compelling. Initially released in 2022 and directed by Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg, Loving Adults follows couple Christian (Dar Salim) and Leonora (Sonja Richter) as their relationship crumbles in a maelstrom of betrayal and murder. Despite its surface-level cliches, the film takes things further...

TrustNordisk has picked up international sales rights to Ole Bornedal’s psychological thriller sequel Nightwatch — Demons Are Forever, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

The flick started shooting in Denmark earlier this week and is a sequel to Bornedal’s 1994 Nightwatch film, which followed a student who took a job as a night watchman at a morgue and begins to discover clues that implicate him as the suspect of a series of murders. The film played a host of international festivals, including Cannes, Toronto, and Berlin. A US remake was also made with Ewan McGregor and Nick Nolte.

The sequel will also follow a young student called Emma who has taken the job as the night watch in a forensic department and tries to investigate the dark past of her parents.

“We are excited to be onboard this highly anticipated successor to the world-renowned psychological thriller Nightwatch, which took the global audience by storm,...

Nightwatch – Demons Are Forever is now shooting in Denmark with a cast led by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

TrustNordisk has boarded international sales for Ole Bornedal’s thriller sequel Nightwatch – Demons Are Forever. The sequel to the hit 1994 film is now shooting in Denmark with a cast led by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

The original Nightwatch had more than 465,000 admissions in Denmark and played in Cannes Critics’ Week, Toronto and Berlinale. A US remake starred Ewan McGregor and Nick Nolte. The original story was about a serial killer and a young law student (Coster-Waldau) working the night shift at a Copenhagen hospital.

Coster-Waldau (Game Of Thrones) again stars,...

"Love should come with a warning label: love can kill you." Love can be quite dangerous if you let it take advantage of you. Netflix has revealed an official trailer for a sultry thriller titled Loving Adults, a Danish film made by Netflix directed by filmmaker Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg based on the novel by Anna Ekberg. What happens to a marriage when the love of your life becomes your worst enemy? Loving Adults is a dark and twisted, yet sexy take on a love triangle that you don’t want to be in. It follows a couple who appear to be living the perfect life after their son is declared healthy following a long-term illness. But things unravel when she sees her husband with another younger woman, deciding to refuse to be the woman who got left behind. The film's cast includes Dar Salim and Sonja Richter as the couple, with Sus Wilkins,...

“The Wife” director Björn Runge was at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival over the weekend to tease his stars-packed passionate Swedish drama “Burn All My Letters” which Sf Studios is producing.

Runge was on the ground at the festival’s industry sidebar along with his producer Annika Sucksdorff, and lead actors Asta Kamma August (“The Pact”) and Gustav Lindh (“Queen of Hearts”). The movie is an adaptation of Alex Schulman’s bestselling novel by the same name. Bill Skarsgård, who wasn’t there in Goteborg, also plays a leading role in the film.

The several clips played during the Goteborg presentation, which showcased the film’s dedicated performances, atmosphere and glossy production design, drew rowdy applause from industry participants and locals. Runge also revealed that Jacob Mühlrad, the celebrated Swedish art music composer, is creating his first film score for the movie.

“Burn All My Letters” marks Runge’s follow...

The 34th European Film Awards ceremony takes place on December 11.

Danish director Susanne Bier is to receive the the honorary European Achievement in World Cinema award from the European Film Academy at this year’s European Film Awards to take place in Berlin on December 11.

Bier is the first female director to win a European Film Award, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy.

She started her career with Freud Leaving Home, the story of a Jewish woman who still lives with her parents in Stockholm at the age of 25, which received the 1991 Dragon Award in Gothenburg.

Bier...

Powder Keg (Krudttønden) Samuel Goldwyn Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Ole Christian Madsen Writer: Lars Kristian Andersen, Ole Christian Madsen Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lars Brygmann, Jakob Oftebro, Sonja Richter, Nicolaj Kopernikus, Martin Greis-Rosenthal Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 7/29/21 Opens: September 3, 2021 The political situation […]

The post Powder Keg (Krudttonden) Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

“Burn All My Letters,” Swedish filmmaker Björn Runge’s follow up to his Glen Close starrer “The Wife,” has just started shooting “Burn All My Letters.” The decade-spanning love drama stars Bill Skarsgård (“Deadpool”) and is based on Alex Schulman’s bestselling novel of the same name.

Sverrir Gudnason has just joined the cast as Schulman and stars alongside Sonja Richter who plays Amanda Schulman, one of Denmark’s greatest actresses. The rest of the cast comprises Marika Lindström (“Daybreak”), Sten Ljunggren (“Border”), as well as Asta Kamma August (“Follow The Money”) and Gustav Lindh (“Rider of Justice”).

“Burn All My Letters” is produced by Sf Studios and sold by REinvent International Sales who have unveiled a first still from the shoot in Sweden (pictured).

Inspired by true events, the story revolves around Karin Stolpe’s complex relationship with her husband Sven Stolpe and her passionate love affair with Olof Lagercrantz...

"Why can't we express our opinions or humour?" Samuel Goldwyn Films has released an official US trailer for a Danish drama titled Powder Keg, releasing in the US this September. (Not to be confused with that BMW driver short of the same name.) The film also goes under the title The Day We Died, and originally Krudttønden in Danish (referring to the the Krudttønden cultural centre where the attack took place), and opened there last year. The film is based on the true events surrounding the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen on February 14th and 15th, 2015, which followed the recent Charlie Hebdo attacks a month before. The film follows various people in Copenhagen whose lives change with this shooting. The full cast includes Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lars Brygmann, Albert Arthur Amiryan, Adam Buschard, Jakob Oftebro, and Sonja Richter. This looks chilling and very dark, "freely inspired by true events," showing unique stories.

Hot off the heels of Danish comedy Another Round winning this year’s Best International Feature Oscar, Netflix has greenlit its first Danish-language original movie, Loving Adults.

Dar Salim (Borgen) and Sonja Richter (Open Hearts) are starring in the movie, which hails from Sf Studios, the Scandi producer behind Netflix’s first Swedish Red Dot and the Netflix original series Snabba Cash.

Barbara Rothenborg (White Sand) will direct the thriller about a couple who appear to be living the perfect life after their son is declared healthy following a long-term illness. After the wife sees her husband with a younger woman, she makes the decision to refuse to be the woman who got left behind. Pic is based on the novel Kærlighed for voksne by Anna Ekberg.

Additional cast includes Sus Wilkins, Mikael Birkkjær, Lars Ranthe, Morten Burian, Benjamin Kitter, Karoline Hamm and Natalï Vallespir Sand.

Marcella Dichmann is producing for Sf.

REinvent is rolling into Cannes’ virtual Marché du Film with a pair of stylish horror film movies, Henrik Dahlsbakken’s “Project Z” whose teaser is featured above, and Tord Danielsson’s “The Other Side.”

Produced by Filmbros, “Project Z” follows a group of film students who bring along three unemployed actors to make a zombie movie at a closed motel in the Norwegian mountainside. Suddenly their fiction is turned into reality, when an unknown creature starts terrorizing the film set.

“Project Z” will be introduced to buyers for the first time at the Cannes market by REinvent. Sf Studios will be releasing the movie in Scandinavia.

“Horror films are hotter than ever internationally and we can’t wait to introduce both ‘Project Z’ and ‘The Other Side’ to the market during Cannes this week,” said Rikke Ennis, the founder of REinvent who was previously CEO of TrustNordisk.

“No doubt that...

Make your own exit plan for Exit Plan, a Danish downer from director Jonas Alexander Arnby, who clearly thinks the indisputable charisma of star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will be enough to sustain our interest. He’s wrong. This solid actor who won an Emmy nomination for playing Jaime Lannister on Game of Thrones hides his movie-star looks behind nerdy glasses and a moustache to play Max, an insurance claims adjuster. There’s nothing special about Max’s life at home with wife, Laerke (Tuva Novotny), and their cat Simba, except his desire to end it.

Bill Nighy is set to score a triple word score this weekend with the dramedy Sometimes Always Never, which is set to open virtually in theaters today before it becomes available on-demand July 10.

Directed by former member of the British band The Farm, Carl Hunter and written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, the film follows Alan (Nighy) a stylish tailor who has spent years searching for his son Michael who went missing after he stormed out of his life…over a game of Scrabble. With a body to identify and his family torn apart, Alan must fix the relationship with his youngest son Peter (Sam Riley) and solve the mystery of an online player who he thinks could be Michael, so he can finally move on and reunite his family. The film also stars Alice Lowe, Jenny Agutter and Tim McInnerny.

Marking Hunter’s feature film debut, the dramedy debuted in...

“Exit Plan” has been retitled from “Suicide Tourist” for its U.S. release, and while the original monicker was certainly punchier, the new one perhaps better captures the gist of a movie that’s ultimately a little too polite and vague to make much of its intriguing premise.

A second feature collaboration between director Jonas Alexander Arnby and writer Rasmus Birch, it is another enigmatic, aesthetically precise toying with genre material — this time more kinda-sorta sci-fi than the quasi-horror of 2014’s “When Animals Dream.” But again, the Danish duo seem more interested in chilly atmospherics and idiosyncratic details than narrative cogency or psychological depth. Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as a terminally ill man who commits himself to a mysterious, isolated resort for assisted suicide, . Screen Media is launching it on VOD and in available theaters June 12.

The “Game of Thrones” actor downplays his good looks via a milquetoast’s glasses, ‘stache and carriage as Max,...

Max (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is an insurance adjuster who just told his latest client that her claim wouldn’t be approved since her husband’s six-month disappearance isn’t confirmation of death. It’s a revelation that leaves her distressed not because she won’t be getting the money, but because she’ll have to continue living with the possibility he might still be alive. She wishes for a body because it would provide answers. She wishes Max would sign-off on the plan anyway because doing so would supply a legal document declaring him dead that she can use to finally move on. The arrival of a videotaped suicide note is therefore received as a godsend. It’s the lead Max needs to open an investigation and officially discover the truth inside The Aurora’s euthanasia-themed hotel.

It’s an intriguing set-up for a suspense thriller where Max infiltrates the organization...

"You're not allowed to be here!" Screen Media Films has debuted a new official Us trailer for the Danish film now known as Exit Plan, formerly titled Suicide Tourist during its initial international release. This premiered at the Sitges & Zurich Film Festivals last year, and is arriving on VOD in June to watch. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays an insurance detective named Max who is investigating Arthur's disappearance. The assignment takes him on a long, mysterious journey into the clandestine Aurora Hotel. While in the midst of an existential crisis, Max questions his perception of reality. Also starring Tuva Novotny, Kate Ashfield, Robert Aramayo, Sonja Richter, Kaya Wilkins, Sobjørg Højfeld, Lorraine Hilton, Slimane Daz, Jan Bijvoet, and Johanna Wokalek. This looks a bit like a "Black Mirror" episode with a horrorific twist. Here's the new official trailer (+ poster) for Jonas Alexander Arnby's Exit Plan, direct from YouTube: Insurance claims investigator...

Charades closes deals for Spain, Middle East, Cis.

Screen Media has acquired North American rights and Charades has struck a raft of international deals on Efm sales title Suicide Tourist, the mystery thriller starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from Game Of Thrones.

Rights to Danish filmmaker Jonas Alexander Arnby’s follow-up to his 2014 Cannes Critics’ Week selection When Animals Dream have closed in Spain (B-team), Cis and Baltics (Paradise), Israel (Forum), and Middle East (Empire).

Further deals have closed in Greece (Spentzos), Hungary, former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria (Aqs), and Taiwan (Spotlight). The film’s German co-producer Dcm is the distributor for German-speaking...

The Day We Died

Denmark’s Ole Christian Madsen has elected to commemorate the 2015 terrorist attacks on Copenhagen with his latest film, The Day We Died (previously known as The Attack on Copenhagen and also Notat). Following in the footsteps of increasingly popular reenactments of terrorist attacks, this ends a six-year hiatus for Madsen. Produced by Malene Blenkov and lensed by John Christian Rosenlund, Madsen gets a high-profile cast led by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, supported by Jakob Oftbro, Sonja Richter and Nikolaj Kopernikus.…...

The 25th New Nordic Films, unspooling Aug. 20-23 parallel to the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, will kick off with the critically-lauded “A White, White Day” by Hlynur Pálmason. The Icelandic drama which world premiered at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, is among 19 films set to screen, of which 13 are world market premieres such as Jesper W. Nielsen’s thriller “The Exception,” Venice Critics Week’s pick “Psychosia,”, Venice Days’ entry “Beware of Children”, Jens Jonsson’s “The Spy” and Jesper Ganslandt’s “438 Days”.

The hot Works in Progress session has 20 titles to be pitched to more than 300 attendees. Gauging this year’s crop, New Nordic Films’ managing director Gyda Velvin Myklebust underlines the large number of local films, genre-driven and reality-based stories, as well as the healthy gender balance -half the films are female directed. “There are many new female talents to watch out for,” says Myklebust, citing the...

Wildwitch, The Shamer’s Daughter – The Serpent Gift, The Ash Lad – In Search of The Golden Castle sell.

TrustNordisk has closed a slew of deals on a trio of its family-oriented films.

It has sold Kasper Munk’s Danish family adventure Wildwitch to Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland (Mfa+), Russia/Ukraine/Kazakhstan (Overbrick), Poland (Vivarto), Mexico (Star Castle), China (Hgc), and Italy and Italian-speaking Switzerland (Imago). The film has already been released in Denmark.

Stinna Lassen and Anni Faurbye Fernandez produce for Good Company Film. The story is about a girl who discovers she is a wildwitch who has special...

Suicide Tourist

Danish director Jonas Alexander Arnby assembles an impressive cast and crew for his sophomore feature Suicide Tourist. The Scandinvaian-German-French co-pro is produced by Eva Jacobsen, Mikkel Jersin and Katrin Pors for Denmark’s Snowglobe, while Germany’s Dcm, Norway’s Mer Film, France’s Charades, and Sweden’s Film i Vast and Garagefilm International have also been involved in production. Arnby returns to work with his When Animals Dream Dp Niels Thastum as well as composer Mikkel Hess. Greece’s Yorgos Mavropsaridis serves as editor. A stellar cast consists of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Tuva Novotny, Sonja Richter, Jan Bijvoet, Kaya Wilkins, Robert Aramayo, Sobørg Højfeldt, Lorraine Hilton and Johanna Wokalek.…...

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister in “Game of Thrones,” heads a distinguished European cast in “Suicide Tourist,” a mystery drama with romantic elements from Copenhagen-based Snowglobe, whose production credits include “Thelma,” “The Untamed” and “Birds of a Passage.”

Described by Snowglobe in a statement as its most ambitious film to date, “Suicide Tourist” marks Danish director Jonas Alexander Arnby’s follow-up to his breakout debut “When Animals Dream,” which played in Cannes Critics’ Week and sold to Radius for the U.S. and to another score of territories. Paris-based Charades has acquired world sales rights to “Suicide Tourist” and will introduce the title to buyers at next week’s American Film Market in Santa Monica.

Coster-Waldau stars opposite Sweden’s Tuva Novotny, co-star of international productions such as “Borg vs. McEnroe” and Alex Garland’s “Annihilation.”

Arnby’s “When Animals Dream” proved catnip to distributors because of its director-driven...

TrustNordisk has boarded Wildwitch, Kaspar Munk’s (“You & Me Forever”) ambitious fantasy film based on Danish author Lene Kaaberbøl’s best-selling books, Variety reports. Produced by Good Company Films, Wildwitch has already started shooting in Hungary with Gerda Lie Kaas and Sonja Richter (“The Keeper of Lost Causes”) in the main roles. Adapted from the best-selling novels […]...

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As UK remake The Tunnel returns, we celebrate Swedish/Danish crime drama The Bridge...

9pm, Saturday night, BBC Four. For the few of us who still, on occasion, watch television when it’s actually broadcast, that timeslot means only one thing: high-quality drama from outside the anglophone world. Okay, so some of the series are less impressive than others, and one or two are in English (remember Australia’s The Code?) but these are exceptions to the rule. What began as a fad, accompanied by much reductive talk of ‘Scandi noir’ and a mildly disturbing national obsession with Sarah Lund’s knitwear, has culminated in a golden age for telly addicts. Our initial resistance to subtitles has faded, and a whole world of often beautifully acted, compellingly plotted drama has opened up. We haven’t strayed very far outside Europe yet, but it’s a start.

Much...

Giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "your own worst enemy", supernatural thriller When Animals Dream hits theaters on August 28th. Also: release details on the vinyl soundtrack from George A. Romero's Martin and a Hellboy emoji keyboard.

When Animals Dream: Originally called Når Dyrene Drømmer, Danish horror film When Animals Dream was directed by Jonas Alexander Arnby and written by Rasmus Birch.

"Directed by: Jonas Alexander Arnby.

Starring: Sonia Suhl, Lars Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter, Jakob Oftebro, Stig Hoffmeyer, Mads Rissom, Esben Dalgaard Andersen, Gustav Dyekjær Giese, Benjamin Boe Rasmussen, and Tina Gylling Mortensen

In theaters and On Demand from RADiUS August 28th.

Synopsis: A teenage girl's sexual awakening unleashes something primal within, revealing a dark family secret. On the run and in mortal danger, embracing a century’s old curse will be her only way to survive.

MPAA Rating: R. Runtime: 85 min."

---------

George A. Romero's Martin...

Earlier this week, we gave you details on first wave of special experiences and events taking place at the 2015 Stanley Film Festival. We now have details on their impressive slate of features, short films, and additional special events, including screenings of The Final Girls, Deathgasm, Stung, The Invitation, and We Are Still Here.

We're teaming up with the festival for live coverage and special opportunities for Daily Dead readers, so be sure to check back all month for contests, features, and more.

"April 2, 2014 (Denver, Co) - The Stanley Film Festival (Sff) produced by the Denver Film Society (Dfs) and presented by Chiller, announced today its Closing Night film, Festival lineup and the 2015 Master of Horror. The Festival will close out with The Final Girls. The film, directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, is the story of a young woman grieving the loss of her mother, a famous scream queen from the 1980s,...

Shoot begins in Denmark on $4.4m film which reunites the stars and creator of The Killing.

After several international assignments, Danish actors Lars Mikkelsen and Sofie Gråbøl return home to star in Zentropa’s $4.4m drama, The Day Will Come.

Shooting will continue for a total of nine weeks in Denmark.

Danish director Jesper W Nielsen, who last made Norwegian film Through a Glass, Darkly in 2009 and since has worked on television series such as Borgen, will shoot the script by Danish screenwriter Søren Sveistrup (The Killing).

After performing in BBC’s Sherlock, Netflix’s House of Cards (as the Russian president) and Nordisk Film’s European series The Team, Mikkelsen will renuite with Gråbøl, who has been in Sky Atlantic’s Fortitude and played Scottish Queen Margaret in James III on stage in Edinburgh and London.

The pair previously starred together in the first season of The Killing in 2007.

The Day Will Come is set in...

Although it is light on action, Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman is a slow-moving western that feels authentic and features powerful performances from Jones and the incredible Hilary Swank. The film also benefits from Miranda Otto, Grace Gummer and Sonja Richter – who make the most of their time on screen and force the audience to care about their characters through heartbreaking flashbacks and the hardships they endure.The term ‘homesman’ refers to the now outdated pioneer occupation of returning someone to their family. In the film (which was directed by Jones), the journey involves taking three women, Arabella Sours (Gummer), […]...

Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank discusses her unique character Mary Bee Cuddy in our exclusive preview for The Homesman, which arrives on Blu-ray and DVD February 17. Based on the award-winning novel by Glendon Swarthout, Hilary Swank stars as a woman who is tasked with taking three deranged women across the frontier. Along the way, Mary rescues George Briggs, played by director Tommy Lee Jones, who reluctantly helps Mary transport three women driven mad by the harsh frontier life across the treacherous land - where a kindly minister's wife (Meryl Streep) has offered them hospice.

The unlikely pair soon realize just how daunting the journey will be as the group traverses the vast Nebraska Territories, marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant danger. Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones co-wrote, directed and stars in this critically acclaimed film, which features an all-star cast including John Lithgow, Miranda Otto, James Spader and Hailee Steinfeld.

As that classic media intro says, “return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear”, for this new release is set in the old West. This was a classic backdrop for so many films, going back over one hundred years to The Great Train Robbery, but the Western has become a rarity in the last decade or so. Recent attempts at big budget revivals like Cowboys & Aliens and last Summer’s reboot of The Lone Ranger were box office sinkholes. But happily, more modestly budgeted independent films have taken up the reins. One of the stars that seems quite at ease on horseback is Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones, so it was no great surprise that his feature film directing debut nine years ago was a modern-day Western, The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada. For his film making return Jones has gone back, nearly a century and a half, to...

Chicago – In Tommy Lee Jones’ passion project “The Homesman,” the wild west provides a vivid setting for a battle in man’s endless war against women, as the film firmly occupying a genre strictly known for cowboys and pioneer machismo. It’s a sorrowful western from actor/writer/director Jones that often shines in its twilight, hoping to slightly reconcile the maltreatment unleashed on half of the world’s most powerful species.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Living outside standard domestic criteria of a developing America in the mid 1800s is Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank), a woman without a spouse or a child, who only takes care of herself and her giant farm. When three extremely psychologically-disturbed women are in need of transport to a hospital up north where they can receive help, Mary Bee volunteers to take on the journey, despite the town initially requiring that a man lead the expedition.

Meanwhile,...

The Homesman

Written for the screen by Tommy Lee Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald, and Wesley A. Oliver

Directed by Tommy Lee Jones

France/USA, 2014

“That’s all there is, there ain’t no more.”

Set during the pioneer era, The Homesman subverts the usual trajectory of westerns set in this time by instead focusing on a journey from what will eventually become Nebraska territory in the West to more Eastern Iowa, wherein defeat via the frontier is a primary concern, whether it be a defeat of the mind, body, soul, or all together. Director Tommy Lee Jones’s last theatrically released film was The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), a contemporary neo-western with shades of Sam Peckinpah in its flavour. The Homesman may have the set dressing of a more traditional, old-school genre entry, but this film, adapted from Glendon Swarthout’s 1988 novel, is much more offbeat than one might expect.

★★★★☆Tommy Lee Jones' second directorial effort following the underrated The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (which played at Cannes in 2005), The Homesman (2014) is something of a reverse western, with homesteader Mary Bee Cuddy (a sterling turn from Hilary Swank) and amoral old-timer George Briggs (Jones) heading from west to east with a cargo of three mentally-ill women, played by Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto and Sonja Richter. The characters have been variously defeated by the brutal reality of frontier life, with loneliness, diphtheria, child mortality and marital abuse having driven these women to the point of desperation and beyond into the realms of madness.

Director: Tommy Lee Jones; Screenwriters: Tommy Lee Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald, Wesley A Oliver; Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter, William Fichtner; Running time: 123 mins; Certificate: 15

Tommy Lee Jones directs and stars in a far-out western, taking a radically different view on the macho politics of expansion with Hilary Swank co-starring as one of many unsung female pioneers. In one sense, it's a western in reverse as they're both headed back east with a wagon-load of women who have become unhinged by life in the dustbowl. But there's an eerie, haunting feel to the action that leaves a question mark hanging over what Jones is really trying to say about the female condition.

Swank must have seized upon the chance to play Mary Bee Cuddy and trade on the androgynous image that earned her Oscars for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby. Again, she's...

Margaret here, reporting from the La festival beat with short takes on some would-be Oscar contenders.

The Gambler

Screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed), director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and star Mark Wahlberg joined forces on this remake of the 1974 James Caan movie of the same name, and the result is certainly stylish. It's well-shot, coolly assured, and smartly paced. Wahlberg leads the movie capably as Jim Bennett, a man from a rich family with a solid career who has nonetheless dug himself to rock bottom with extravagant compulsive gambling. 

The film is at its best when it engages with the question of why someone whose life is granted so much privilege so systematically pisses it all away. John Goodman, typically scene-stealing as a dangerous loan shark, makes many salient points about Jim's decisions, which are either self-destructive or indefensibly stupid.  To its detriment, the film...

This weekend’s onslaught of smaller new films will have awards contenders and big names to jostle with at the box office. Awards hopefuls Foxcatcher and The Homesman begin their theatrical runs in limited New York and L.A. rollouts, with the former a likely winner in the first weekend when the numbers come in Sunday. The films from Sony Pictures Classics and Roadside Attractions, respectively, tell particularly American stories, though from very different eras. The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart took time off in 2013 to work on his directorial debut. Open Road’s Rosewater, starring Gael García Bernal, will begin its theatrical rollout this weekend. It will be the biggest opener of this weekend’s cadre of specialty newcomers, playing in several hundred locations in the U.S. and Canada. Actor Chris Lowell also makes his filmmaking launch with Beside Still Waters. The project had smooth sailing until it came time for distribution,...

Jumping Claims: Jones’ Attempt at Revisionist Western Withers Under its Own Intentions

Try as it might, The Homesman, Tommy Lee Jones’ first directorial effort since his 2005 film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, fails to deliver an accurate rendering of the miserable plight of women in the Old West. While some are sure to embrace the superficial revisionist attempt at providing us with a feminist subtext, Jones actually manages to accomplish the opposite with a film that only highlights a male perspective’s well-meaning but misguided interpretation of a story about women. As it completely sells out on its main female protagonist, it’s clear that the project is merely a vanity piece where a multitude of characters are only utilized to compliment his presence, as well as a moment of convenient (and false pathos).

A thirty one year old spinster, Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) is a rare example...

A social-realist werewolf fantasy in which burgeoning womanhood is a thing terrifying to many a man, particularly if a woman simply will not be tamed. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

See? When filmmakers stop imagining that boys and men must be at the center of their stories, all sorts of new possibilities open up, even in well-trod genres. When Animals Dream is ostensibly a werewolf fantasy, but if you’re looking for lots of scares and gore, keep moving. Director Jonas Alexander Arnby, making his feature debut, eschews a horror atmosphere in favor of something more social-realist for his tale of teenaged Marie (Sonia Suhl) and her coming of age on a remote Danish fishing island, in which screenwriter Rasmus Birch explores the notion of burgeoning womanhood as something terrifying to many a man,...

While age is nothing but a numerical label, one has to admire Tommy Lee Jones for actively seeking out passion projects this far into his career. After a storied legacy that includes an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and even an Emmy, Jones could simply sit back and let the offers roll in, but that’s not how this hard-working Hollywood maverick rolls. The Homesman is only Jones’ second directorial feature, adapted from Glendon Swarthout’s novelization, yet it’s a confident period piece harnessed through years of experience both on and behind the all-seeing camera lens. It’s a simple story about how cruel Western territories could be back in the gun-slinging-cowboy days, playing directly into Jones’ gruff and straight-shooting nature, but The Homesman also reveals a societal culture that’s incredibly foreign to today’s equal-opportunity world. Heavy on drama and light on shoot-outs, Jones certainly has an intriguing second effort on his hands,...