News

Renate Reinsve in Handling The Undead. Thea Hvistendahl: 'While I was working on the script, I realised that I was mostly interested in a premise that would be more like, what if you got your biggest wish fulfilled?' Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute Thea Hvistendahl’s Handling The Undead may feature zombies of sorts but they are at their most meditative and melancholic in a story that is focused on the nature of grief and letting go. Adapted by Let The Right One In’s John Ajvide Lindqvist from his own book, the film offers a triptych of stories that unfold after the hot Oslo summer is rocked by a strange event that sees the dead return from their graves. A woman (Bente Børsum) who has just laid her partner (Olga Damani) to rest finds her back at home not long after leaving the funeral parlour, while an...

"The hotel is shrinking!" This film premiered at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival and will be touring festivals before it opens sometime in 2025. From director Tallulah, Mr. K is another new Kafka story to get lost in. "Crispin Glover brings his best to Tallulah's delightfully Kafkaesque tale of a traveling magician who finds himself in a hotel full of unusual guests — with no way out." After spending the night in a remote hotel, Mr. K is stuck in a claustrophobic nightmare when he discovers that he can't leave the building. Glover stars with the ensemble cast featuring Sunnyi Melles, Fionnula Flanagan, Bjørn Sundquist, Dearbhla Molloy, Barbara Sarafian, Jan Gunnar Røise, Esmée van Kampen, & Sam Louwyck. TIFF teases more: "Though Glover's Mr. K expresses admirable patience and fortitude in the face of many curveballs, he inevitably starts to come undone. Conversely, Schwab grows ever more exacting in her control of the film's unabashedly peculiar tone.

"Sometimes you have to do painful things for you family." Netflix has revealed the trailer for Billionaire Island, a dark comedy series streaming this fall on Netflix worldwide. It's the latest Netflix series creation from the same creators of "Lilyhammer". Julie Lange, the head of Marlax, plans a hostile takeover of a local competitor to become the world's largest salmon producer. Billionaire Island is about the rivalry between two families, pitting old traditions against new (wealth) ambitions. It's about two families in a small coastal community in Norway who are sworn enemies in the global salmon industry. The series is shot at the island of Frøya, Trøndelag, and depicts Norway's much-talked about and major fish farming industry in a new and humorous way. Trine Wiggen leads the cast as a ruthless owner of a Norwegian fish farming company who plans a hostile takeover of her local rival in order to...

“Handling the Undead” is a horror movie directed by Thea Hvistendahl starring Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars and Bjørn Sundquist.

“Handling the Undead” is a horror film directed by Thea Hvistendahl and starring Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars, and Bjørn Sundquist. Life surprises us, and that has happened with the title that concerns us today, “Handling the Undead,” a movie with many virtues that, at the same time, and contradictorily, a great drawback: it doesn’t resemble George A. Romero’s 1968 classic, Night of the Living Dead.

“Handling the Undead” is a talent-packed movie that takes the zombie and horror genre to a more intellectual, almost reflective state, stylized visually, and hitting the horror cinema stuck in clichés of all kinds, various scares, and bloody scenes.

“Handling the Undead” is a film that seeks to go beyond zombies and go beyond horror cinema with a movie without scares,...

Stars: Renate Reinsve, Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars | Written by Thea Hvistendahl, John Ajvide Lindqvist | Directed by Thea Hvistendahl

After a strange electrical storm, three separate families in the same Norwegian town find that their relatives — who have all recently died — have come back to live. Trying to navigate how to live with their dearly departed, each family is confronted by its own sense of grief, loss and love.

If that reads like a loaded synopsis to you, you’re right. Far from the comedic throes of Shaun of the Dead or the traditional horror of Night of the Living Dead, Handling the Undead is a zombie movie we’ve never seen before. Instead of running with terror, thrills or humour, director Thea Hvistendahl chooses to focus on a melancholic sense of brooding. Out of all the zombie films that exist, this is the closest to reality,...

Handling The Undead Image: Neon The zombie genre has proven wildly adaptable, transcending cultures and national borders. Plenty of efforts trade in action-horror mayhem, while others use a return of the (generally flesh-craving) undead as an inciting incident for grander social statements or inquiries pegged to societal breakdown. In terms of explorative value,...

Handling The UndeadImage: Neon

The zombie genre has proven wildly adaptable, transcending cultures and national borders. Plenty of efforts trade in action-horror mayhem, while others use a return of the (generally flesh-craving) undead as an inciting incident for grander social statements or inquiries pegged to societal breakdown. In terms of explorative value,...

The zombie genre resides comfortably under the umbrella of horror that it is rarely explored through different means. Then, you have films like Maggie, which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in a rare dramatic turn, that features the concept in a different light. Prepare for the emotion and despair of seeing your loved ones return in an unnatural manner in the trailer for the Norway horror drama Handling the Undead. The film is based on the novel Hanteringen av odöda from the Let the Right One In author, John Ajvide Lindqvist. The new haunting trailer was just released by Neon.

The official synopsis from Neon reads,

“On a hot summer day in Oslo, the dead mysteriously awaken, and three families are thrown into chaos when their deceased loved ones come back to them. Who are they, and what do they want? A family is faced with the mother’s reawakening before they...

"He needs to go to a hospital." "No. Then we'll lose him again." Neon has debuted the second official trailer for the indie horror thriller from Norway titled Handling the Undead, from Norwegian filmmaker Thea Hvistendahl. This initially premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to mostly mixed & negative reviews. This dramatic horror-thriller film takes place on a hot summer day in Oslo, Norway. The newly dead mysteriously awaken, and three families are thrown into chaos when their deceased loved ones come back to them. Who are they, and what do they want? What does this resurrection mean and are their loved ones back? I'm guessing no... Adapted from the novel by the same writer who wrote the Let the Right One In book. Starring Renate Reinsve (from The Worst Person in the World), Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars, and Inesa Dauksta. "A story about grief and loss,...

Sundance Film Festival is heading to London again this summer and the programme is full of cinematic goodies. More below.

The days are getting lighter, the sun is shining ever so slightly more now and we’ve packed away our thickest wool jumpers, although we still need some thick socks. That must mean one thing and one thing only.

Sundance Film Festival: London is almost upon us.

Some might say summer is coming too, but we’re mostly excited for Sundance London, which has just revealed their full programme for this year’s festival. The festival brings a fine selection of films which originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, in Park City, Utah. The crème de la crème, so to speak.

The festival will open on 6 June with a screening of Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt’s Irish-language film and draw to a close on 9 June with Sean Wang...

Handling The Undead may be the most depressing zombie movie of all time. Sure, many a horror film has depicted gruesome deaths, desperate actions and humankind’s capacity for depravity, but Thea Hvistendahl’s work is about something more personal and unavoidable: the difficulty of parting with the memory of our dead nearest and dearest. In this case, the undead loved ones’ remains are physically present, rather than simply gone. As you might predict, that doesn’t make things easier. Composer Peter Raeburn put it succinctly after the world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, saying the filmmakers didn’t want to fall into horror, but very much wanted to create a sense of “throbbing terror”.

The film intercuts three different stories, each with loved ones in a different stage of grieving. Anna (Renate Reinsve) and her father (Bjørn Sundquist) have had the most time to deal with the death of their.

Renate Reinsve in Handling The Undead. Peter Raeburn: 'When you're working on a film like this, it's like being part of a band, and I play one instrument, someone else plays another and everyone's very respectful' Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute Zombie movies traditionally involve lurching cadavers and adrenaline-rush horror. Thea Hvistendahl takes an altogether slower and more sorrowful approach with her debut Handling The Undead, which is adapted by Let The Right One In’s John Ajvide Lindqvist from his own book. The drip of dread and the horror of grief come together in this trio of tales in which, after a strange event in a hot Oslo summer, families find their loved ones rising from the grave. In one corner of the city, Renate Reinsve’s Anna and her father (Bjørn Sundquist) try to help her son, with his rasping breath and buzzing flies telling us all...

The first word that comes to mind when thinking of how to write about Thea Hvistendahl’s Handling the Undead is: dread. To expand: slow, ponderous dread. Written by John Ajvide Lindqvist (and based on his novel of the same name), this is a zombie movie in the tradition of the author’s own Let the Right One In. There are zombies here but, as with the vampires in the latter work, the focus is elsewhere, mostly. Its genre construct is meant to elevate a deeper kind of pain. In this incarnation, a series of sad people dealing with different variations of grief must contend with an unsettling new reality: those loved ones they’ve buried have come back to life.

But only somewhat. Stand-up comedian David (Anders Danielsen Lie) loses his wife (Bahar Pars) in a car accident, forced to face their two children in the immediate aftermath. Hours later,...

Early in Handling the Undead, an adolescent girl, Flora (Inesa Dauksta), plays a video game where shooting zombies is your ticket to staying alive. Rendered in crude 3D, these shambling, emaciated, flesh-hungry zombies are the familiar sort that have haunted the pop-cultural imagination, and this depiction stands in seeming contrast to the people who came back from the dead after a mysterious event in Thea Hvistendahl’s film. They don’t do much of anything except breath and stare from behind glassy eyes at a world we’re never really sure if they can comprehend. But while they’re shells of who they once were, silent and often immobile, they recall enough of where they came from to reach out to the people who grieve them.

Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who co-wrote the screenplay with Hvistendahl, the film moves between three non-intersecting subplots. In one, we...

A loud, high-pitched sound echoes through the streets of Oslo. Car alarms start going off everywhere. A citywide blackout begins. An elderly man, draped over his grandson’s grave, begins to hear the sound of muffled knocks coming from under the ground. “Grandpa is coming,” he says repeatedly. He grabs a shovel and begins to dig. So begins Handling the Undead, Thea Hvistendahl‘s somber feature directorial debut that acts as a haunting meditation on grief, daring to ask us what we would do if someone we loved returned from the dead.

Adapted from John Ajvide Lindqvist’s (Let the Right One In) 2005 novel of the same name (he also co-wrote the screenplay with Hvistendahl), Handling the Undead chronicles the lives of three families as they deal with the sudden return of their recently deceased loved ones. Anna is saved from a suicide attempt when her father Mahler (Bjørn Sundquist...

Sundance film festival: The Worst Person in the World’s Renate Reinsve leads a dour film about families dealing with the reappearance of deceased loved ones

The dead are returning in the chilly Norwegian drama Handling the Undead, a sad, somber attempt to guide the zombie genre from midnight movie to arthouse. It works in parts, as a study of the ache and irrationality of grief, asking its characters how much they’re willing to accept and deny in order to see their loved ones again. But the first-time director Thea Hvistendahl’s patience-insisting slow burn can be testing, like watching a block of ice slowly melt, a story told in the smallest of drips, some of which sink in deeper than others.

On a summer’s day in Oslo, three different dynamics are upended by this confounding re-emergence. A single mother (The Worst Person in the World’s Renate...

Perhaps the best way to describe the Norwegian zombie movie, Handling the Undead (Handtering av Udode), is as a mournful reflection on grief, on the struggle of the bereaved to let go of their departed loved ones. Based on the book by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, whose debut novel, Let the Right One In, became one of the best vampire movies of the 21st century — yielding a solid enough American remake, a so-so Showtime series and an innovative British stage adaptation — Thea Hvistendahl’s debut feature is a slow-burn experience that demands patience.

The degree to which that patience is rewarded will depend on the viewer’s willingness to get lost in the mood of pervasive anxiety and sorrow in a movie whose elegant restraint make it more psychological study than horror. That applies even once the rotting flesh-eaters have been revealed. One selling point of the multistrand drama...

If zombies weren’t so fixated on eating our brains, perhaps they’d be poignant to have around: semi-living, semi-breathing semblances of people we’ve loved, there to be seen and held and talked to, not truly present but not absent either. Whether that’s preferable to the void of death is the question underpinning “Handling the Undead” for much of its running time, even as the threat of the undead reverting to their usual habits gives this soft, sorrowful bereavement drama a core of cold-blooded horror. Thea Hvistendahl’s impressively restrained debut feature may keep its genre intentions just up its sleeve until the final act, but it never feels like a trick or a compromise: It’s a living-dead nightmare with a brain and a heart and, most importantly and inedibly, a soul.

The film’s somewhat liminal genre identity presents marketing challenges for U.S. distributor Neon...

In the realm of zombie-themed films, a genre often fliled with clichés and predictable plot lines, Handling the Undead aims to stand out as something different.

Directed by Thea Hvistendahl, and written by Hvistendahl and John Ajvide Lindqvist, the film stars Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum, Bahar Pars, Inesa Dauksta, Olga Damani, and Kian Hansen.

The story takes a subtle approach, diverging from the expected scenes of chaos and horror, while focusing on three families set against a backdrop of an apocalyptic event. The narrative is an exploration of human response to the unimaginable.

Handling the Undead opens with the camera hovering over a large apartment complex in the middle of a hot Oslo summer. Mahler (Sundquist) walks up the stairs to an apartment where his granddaughter (Reinsve) is blasting bossa nova music and painting her toenails before getting ready for work. There are pictures of...

Thea Hvistendahl’s “Handling the Undead,” fresh off its Sundance premiere, has already scared multiple buyers into submission, Variety has found out exclusively.

Starring “The Worst Person in the World’s” Renate Reinsve and sold by TrustNordisk, it has been picked up by Hungary (Vertigo Media), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), France (KinoVista), Spain (Avalon Distribution), Korea (Pancinema), Japan (Tohokushinsha Film Corp.), Taiwan (Swallow Wings Films) and Anz (Signature Entertainment).

Neon Rated acquired North American and U.K. rights.

In the Norwegian film, Mahler and his daughter, Anna, mourn the too early passing of his grandson. Tora says her final goodbye to her wife at the funeral home, while a family of four face a life without a wife and mother.

Then, a strange electric field and collective migraine spread across Oslo on an especially hot summer day. Television sets, lightbulbs and electronics go haywire, and suddenly, it’s all over.

John Ajvide Lindqvist’s vampire novel Let the Right One In (or Låt den rätte komma in) has inspired a Swedish film of the same name, an American film called Let Me In, and a short-lived Showtime series called Let the Right One In, while his short story Gräns served as the basis of the 2018 fantasy film Border. The latest adaptation of his work is the Norwegian film Handling the Undead, based on the novel Hanteringen av odöda. The film will be screening at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival as part of the World Cinematic Dramatic Competition, and has also secured a North American and UK distribution deal with Neon. Now that we know the film is heading to Sundance, a trailer for Handling the Undead has made its way online, and you can check it out in the embed above.

Handling the Undead marks the feature directorial debut of Thea Hvistendahl,...

"I love you whether you like it or not." Neon has unveiled the first official trailer for the indie horror thriller from Norway titled Handling the Undead, marking the first narrative feature from Norwegian filmmaker Thea Hvistendahl. It was also announced today as part of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival line-up in the World Cinema Competition section. This dramatic horror-thriller takes place on a hot summer day in Oslo. The newly dead mysteriously awaken, and three families are thrown into chaos when their deceased loved ones come back to them. Who are they, and what do they want? What does this resurrection mean and are their loved ones back? Adapted from the novel by the same writer who wrote the Let the Right One In book. Starring Renate Reinsve (from The Worst Person in the World), Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars, and Inesa Dauksta. Yes this is...

One of the genre films announced this afternoon for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival is Handling the Undead, based on the novel from writer John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let The Right One In). Neon unveiled a new trailer ahead of the fest, giving a closer look at families grappling with the sudden awakening of the dead.

A strange phenomena erupts across Oslo, causing a strange spike in electricity that resurrects people who recently died.

The Norwegian film is the feature-length directorial debut of filmmaker Thea Hvistendahl. The horror drama feature is based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Lindqvist co-wrote the script along with the director.

In Handling the Undead: “On a hot summer day in Oslo, the newly dead awaken. Three families faced with loss try to figure out what this resurrection means and if their loved ones really are back.”

Watch the trailer below, which has a...

It was a casting announcement that brought joy to fans of Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World. Actors Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie reunited for another film, under the direction of fellow Norwegian filmmaker Thea Hvistendahl. Production on Handling the Undead (aka Håndtering av udøde) took place in Oslo in October of 2022 and it’ll be ready for a launch via the Neon folks in 2024. Also starring Bjørn Sundquist and Bente Børsum, this Scandi-horror drama deals with grief and mortality and extends itself onto more than one family. Hvistendahl had her 2019 short film premiere at SXSW so programmers there will also be keeping tabs on this one.…...

Crispin Glover, Sunnyi Melles, Fionnula Flanagan star in the film.

LevelK has boarded world sales on Dutch drama Mr. K starring Crispin Glover, which has wrapped filming and is now in post-production.

Back To The Future star Glover plays the eponymous character, a travelling magician who finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of the hotel he just slept in. His attempts to get out only entangle him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.

LevelK has released a first look at the film, above. Paradiso will release the title in Belgium.

Written and directed by Tallulah Schwab,...

Handling the Undead (Håndtering av udøde)

A directorial debut that reunites thesps Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie for a third occasion, Norwegian helmer Thea Hvistendahl got a major boost from the Neon folks swooping in and grabbing the title back in September. Described as a character-driven horror/drama dealing with fundamental emotions around grief and mortality. The cast also includes Bjørn Sundquist and Bente Børsum. Einar Film’s Kristin Emblem and Guri Neby are producing.

Gist: On an abnormally hot summer day in Oslo, a strange electric field surrounds the city as a collective migraine spreads across town. TVs, lightbulbs, and electronics go haywire, the chaos reaching a debilitating crescendo when suddenly, it’s over.…...

After a very brief acting debut in Oslo, August 31st, Renate Reinsve reteamed with Anders Danielsen Lie and Joachim Trier for The Worst Person in the World, picking up Best Actress at Cannes, and the rest is history. Now, the actors are reuniting for a new Norwegian horror drama.

Picked up by Neon, Handling the Undead brings together Reinsve and Danielsen Lie, as well as Bjørn Sundquist (Witch Hunters), Bente Børsum (Exit), and og Bahars Pars (A Man Called Ove), marking the feature debut of director Thea Hvistendahl, who previously directed the documentary Adjø Montebello and several short films, including Virgins4lyfe which was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at SXSW.

Handling the Undead is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who co-wrote the script by Hvistendahl. On an abnormally hot summer day in Oslo, a strange electric field surrounds the city as a collective migraine spreads across town.

Neon has acquired North American and UK rights to the upcoming Handling the Undead, Screen Daily reports, based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In).

Thea Hvistendahl (Adjø Montebello) is directing the film, which is now in production.

Screen Daily reports, “Hvistendahl and Lindqvist jointly adapted the screenplay about a strange electrical field which surrounds Oslo on an abnormally hot summer day, causing collective migraine and mayhem.”

“The character-driven drama explores grief and loss and follows three families caught up in the chaos.”

The cast includes Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum, and Bahars Pars.

Kristin Emblem and Guri Neby are producing via their Einar Film, with whom Anonymous Content has partnered on Scandinavian joint venture Anonymous Content Nordic. The film is co-produced by Zentropa Sweden and Filmiki, and supported by The Norwegian Film Institute, The Swedish Film Institute, Film i Väst, Nordisk Film & TV Fond and Oslo Film Fond.

Click here to read the full article.

Neon has acquired the North American and British distribution rights to the horror drama Handling the Undead, starring Oscar-nominated Renate Reinsve.

Reinsve earned the best actress crown at Cannes for her star turn in The Worst Person in the World. She is joined in Handling The Undead by fellow Worst Person in the World actor Anders Danielsen Lie in the feature debut for director Thea Hvistendahl.

The film about three families facing loss and grief is currently in production and is produced by Kristin Emblem & Guri Neby under their Einar Film banner and also stars Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum and Bahars Pars.

Hvistendahl earlier directed the documentary AdjøMontebello and several short films, including Virgins4lyfe, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at SXSW.

Handling the Undead is set on a hot summer day in Oslo, Norway, as a strange electric field...

Neon has acquired the North American and UK distribution rights to a film called “Handling the Undead” that will reunite the distributor with its stars from “The Worst Person in the World,” Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie.

“Handling the Undead” is the feature directorial debut of Thea Hvistendahl and is based on a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who is the author of horror classics that have also been adapted into features “Let the Right One In” and “Border.”

The film is currently shooting and no specific release date plans were revealed. Here’s the full synopsis:

Also Read:

Neon to Re-Release ‘Oldboy’ From Director Park Chan-Wook

On an abnormally hot summer day in Oslo, a strange electric field surrounds the city as a collective migraine spreads across town. TVs, lightbulbs, and electronics go haywire, the chaos reaching a debilitating crescendo when suddenly, it’s over. “Handling the Undead...

Neon has acquired North American and UK rights to the horror-drama Handling the Undead, marking the narrative feature debut of Thea Hvistendahl, who previously directed the documentary Adjø Montebello and several short films, including the SXSW Grand Jury Award-nominated Virgins4lyfe. The project reteams the distributor with Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, who starred in its Oscar-nominated romantic drama The Worst Person in the World, directed by Joachim Trier.

Handling the Undead picks up on an abnormally hot summer day in Oslo, as a strange electric field surrounds the city, with a collective migraine spreading across town. TVs, lightbulbs and electronics go haywire, the chaos reaching a debilitating crescendo when suddenly, it’s over.

The film currently in production is based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the renowned writer of bestselling horror novels and the screenplays Border and Let the Right One In, who co-wrote the script with Hvistendahl.

Border screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist wrote novel on which feature is based.

Neon is reuniting with The Worst Person In The World stars Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie and has acquired North American and UK rights to in-production horror Handling The Undead.

The film marks the fiction feature directing debut of Thea Hvistendahl and is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who write Border, which Neon released, and Let The Right One In.

Hvistendahl and Lindqvist jointly adapted the screenplay about a strange electrical field which surrounds Oslo on an abnormally hot summer day, causing collective migraine and mayhem.

Border screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist wrote novel on which feature is based.

Neon is reuniting with The Worst Person In The World stars Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie and has acquired North American and UK rights to in-production horror Handling The Undead.

The film marks the fiction feature directing debut of Thea Hvistendahl and is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who write Border, which Neon released, and Let The Right One In.

Hvistendahl and Lindqvist jointly adapted the screenplay about a strange electrical field which surrounds Oslo on an abnormally hot summer day, causing collective migraine and mayhem.

Border screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist wrote novel on which feature is based.

Neon is reuniting with The Worst Person In The World star Renate Reinsve and has acquired North American and UK rights to in-production horror Handling The Undead.

The film marks the fiction feature directing debut of Thea Hvistendahl and is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who write Border, which Neon released, and Let The Right One In.

Hvistendahl and Lindqvist jointly adapted the screenplay about a strange electrical field which surrounds Oslo on an abnormally hot summer day, causing collective migraine and mayhem.

The character-driven...

John Ajvide Lindqvist’s vampire novel Let the Right One In (or Låt den rätte komma in) has inspired a Swedish film of the same name, an American film called Let Me In, and an upcoming Showtime series called Let the Right One In, while his short story Gräns served as the basis of the 2018 fantasy film Border. Now Variety reports that we’re getting another film based on Lindqvist source material, and this time it’s a zombie movie called Handling the Undead, based on the novel Hanteringen av odöda. TrustNordisk has picked up the international sales rights to the character-driven horror drama, which is currently filming.

Handling the Undead marks the feature directorial debut of Thea Hvistendahl, who is working from a screenplay written by Lindqvist himself. (He also handled the screenplay adaptation of Let the Right One In himself.) This one begins

during an especially hot summer day in Oslo,...

TrustNordisk has acquired international sales rights to the upcoming horror drama “Handling the Dead,” Variety has found out at Haugesund.

Anonymous Content is repping U.S. rights.

Thea Hvistendahl’s feature debut, produced by Kristin Emblem and Guri Neby for Einar Film and currently shooting, will be presented at Helsinki’s Finnish Film Affair’s Nordic Selection sidebar in September. Its first still has also been shared with Variety.

“We are thrilled to be working with Thea and Einar Film on this exciting genre project, [one] that will be spine-chilling and moving at the same time. We believe it has strong appeal both within festivals and distribution,” observed TrustNordisk’s managing director Susan Wendt.

Based on a novel by acclaimed writer John Ajvide Lindqvist – also behind “Let the Right One In” and short story “Border,” later adapted by Ali Abbasi – it will kick off during an especially hot summer day in Oslo,...

A solitary man roams a mountainous forest. He is clad in coarse furs and carries a rough bow for hunting, an essential survival task at which he is, alas, not very good. So he descends from the wilderness to forage in… a gas-station convenience store?

It’s a bone-dry opener to the male midlife crisis Danish filmmaker Thomas Daneskov is toying with in his second feature, Wild Men, but it’s pretty much the most intriguing bit of play this deeply black comedy manages. Oh, there’s definitely stuff worth spending time with here, but this odyssey of modern manhood is far more daring in what it is attempting than it how it succeeds, or not.

The man on the mountain is Martin (Rasmus Bjerg), who has “just grown tired of everything” — by which he means his loving wife and two small daughters, and the corporate job we may presume...

Mubi Go, which has helped buoy NYC’s arthouse market by offering members a free movie ticket a week at participating theaters, expands to LA today where the biz could really use a boost. The films are curated and the first is Apple’s Cha Cha Real Smooth.

Mubi, a global streaming service, production company and film distributor, launched Mubi Go in New York last fall and will continue expanding to major markets through 2022 with Chicago next. “We’re being very careful and methodical about the rollout,” said distribution chief Chris Wells.

Mubi members get Mubi Go as a perk. The company doesn’t release subscriber numbers but Wells said its NYC base jumped by 30 after it added Mubi Go.

Movie picks include its own releases, like Lingui, The Sacred Bonds, but mostly from other distributors from Drive My Car, The Power of the Dog and Passing to We’re...

What happens when you want to go back to nature, only to find that nature is not at all welcoming? If you’re the midlife-crisis-beset Martin (Rasmus Bjerg), the hangdog protagonist of “Wild Men,” you might figure that after 10 days of trying to rough it in the wild as a landlocked Viking, it would be a good time to trek out of the Norwegian woods and seek snacks, beer, smokes and other necessities at a roadside service station minimart.

Trouble is, as we see during the opening minutes of Thomas Daneskov’s gently absurdist comedy, although Martin did remember to tuck his iPhone in his animal-skin garb before fleeing the constraints of civilization, he neglected to bring along any money. And the understandably discombobulated clerk behind the counter isn’t willing to barter when Martin offers pelts, and an axe, as payment for his items. One thing leads to another,...

Shout! Studios has acquired North American distribution rights to family film “Three Wishes for Cinderella,” starring Norwegian pop singer Astrid Smeplass, in a deal with Sola Media.

The retelling of the classic tale was a big hit in Norway, only outperformed by “No Time to Die” in last year’s box office. It is directed by Cecilie A. Mosli, whose credits include “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Other cast include Cengiz Al (“Skam”), Thorbjørn Harr (“Vikings”), Nasrin Khusrawi (“Lilyhammer”), Bjørn Sundquist (“Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”), Kristofer Hivju (“Game of Thrones”), Ellen Dorrit (“The Worst Person in the World”), and Ingrid Giæver (“Thelma”).

Shout! has previously partnered with Sola on other family films, including “Snowtime,” “Swift” and “Dreambuilders.”

Solveig Langeland, managing director of Sola, said: “ ‘Three Wishes for Cinderella’ is a modern charming and atmospheric fairy tale suited for every generation. Our Cinderella is kind and beautiful yet independent and strong; she is...

"An absurdist chuckle-fest." Samuel Goldwyn Films has revealed an official trailer for an indie comedy from Denmark titled Wild Men, which is finally getting a US release this June. It first premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, and also stopped by the Neuchâtel and Fantasia Film Festivals. In a desperate attempt to cure his midlife crisis, Martin has fled his family to live high up in the Norwegian mountains. Hunting and gathering like his ancestors did thousands of years ago, living in the wild. But surprise, surprise, Martin's quest for manhood leads to deep and hilariously uncomfortable realizations about the presumed masculine ideal. Rasmus Bjerg stars as Martin, with an extra manly cast including Zaki Youssef, Bjørn Sundquist, Marco Ilsø, Jonas Bergen Rahmanzadeh, Håkon T. Nielsen, Tommy Karlsen, Rune Temte, and Sofie Gråbøl. This looks like a Taika Waititi comedy but from Scandinavia, with a hilarious cast of characters and so many wacky scenes.

International sales agency Sola Media, which is taking part in Hong Kong’s Filmart this week, has boarded the Norwegian remake of Czech classic film “Three Wishes for Cinderella,” with pop music star Astrid Smeplass, better known as Astrid S, playing Cinderella.

Smeplass’ tracks have generated more than 2.3 billion streams with hit singles such as “Hurts So Good,” “Think Before I Talk” and “Emotion.”

Smeplass said of Václav Vorlícek’s 1973 classic: “It is such an important film. When I was young, I admired the original version of Cinderella a lot, and I hope that we will reach a wide female audience who will see that they can be just as brave and courageous as she.“

Sola’s Solveig Langeland, who acts as an executive producer on the film, said it would be “an incredibly modern and feminist yet charming and atmospheric fairy-tale.”

Langeland said that Cinderella would be portrayed as “kind and beautiful,...

Lagardere Studios Distribution has boarded “The Machinery,” an action-packed thriller series headlined by Kristoffer Joner (“The Revenant”), which was teased by Viaplay during a presentation at Goteborg’s TV Drama Vision conference on Thursday.

Set at the border between Sweden and Norway, the show follows Olle Hultén, an ordinary dad who wakes up on a ferry at the border of Strömstad and Sandefjord after a late night in possession of a bag full of cash, a gun and a robbery mask. Hunted by the police, he sets off on a journey to prove his innocence.

The show will premiere on Viaplay, the streaming service operated by Nent Group. Headed by industry veteran Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet, Lagardere Studios Distribution is set to represent “The Machinery” in international markets.

Joner stars in the show opposite Julia Schacht (“Melk”), Emilia Roosmann (“Fartblinda”), Hanna Alström (“Kingsman”), Anastasios Soulis (“Gåsmamman”), Emil Almén (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...

TrustNordisk is handling international sales.

TrustNordisk will handle sales on Thomas Daneskov’s comedy Men of the Wild, produced by Lina Flint at Nordisk Film Spring, the outfit behind The Guilty.

Daneskov co-wrote the film with award-winning author Morten Pape.

The film started shooted in the mountains of Norway on October22 and will wrap on November 26.

Rasmus Bjerg and Zaki Youssef star in the comedy about a Danish man who runs away from his modern life to find himself in nature. But he finds himself on the run with an unlikely companion.

The cast also includes Sofie Grabol, Jonas Bergen Rahmanzadeh and Bjørn Sundquist.

The Revenant and Mission: Impossible – Fallout star Kristoffer Joner is to front Swedish-Norwegian action thriller The Machinery for Svod service Viaplay.

The Nordic Entertainment Group-backed streaming service has ordered the eight-part series, to debut in 2020.

It is the latest original for the company, which is rapidly ramping up its slate of originals with A-list talent. In May, Deadline revealed that Brendan Fraser is to star in The Professionals, a loose remake of the Christian Slater-fronted action movie Soldiers of Fortune for the platform, and in March it signed up Shades of Blue creator Adi Hasak to create Margeaux, an international drama about the Munich Olympic massacre.

In The Machinery, Joner plays family man Olle, who wakes up on a ferry between Sweden and Norway with no memory of how he got there. What happened? Why is there a gun, a balaclava and a suitcase full of cash next to him?...

Norwegian director Hallvard Bræin’s action comedy Børning received both the jury and the audiences’ film prize at the ceremony in Haugesund’s Maritim HallScroll down for full list of winners

Norwegian director Hallvard Bræin’s feature debut, Børning – a local twist of Cannonball Run (1981), which became last year’s most popular Norwegian film, taking 381,648 admissions – was also the big winner at the Amanda awards ceremony in Haugesund on Saturday (Aug 15).

At the TV2 Norge televised presentation in Haugesund’s Maritim Hall, preceding today’s opening of the 43rd Norwegian International Film Festival, Børning received Amandas – Norway’s national film prizes - including Best Norwegian Feature, the People’s Amanda, Best Supporting Actor (Henrik Mestad) and Best Sound Design (Fredric Vogel, Petter Fladeby).

The frontrunner for the awards - Norwegian director Bent Hamer 1001 Grams (1001 gram), which has so far toured 25 international film festivals – was nominated in six categories, but won only Best Original Screenplay.

For the first...

Here Is Harold kicked off the Scandinavian Film Festival last night in typically dour, dark and chillingly humorous style; muted comedy peaked through a very basic tale of revenge stemming from the wrong place.Harold (Bjørn Sundquist) has lost everything; his family furniture store, his money, and his wife soon after. In the increasingly grim surroundings of his life Harold finds purpose and drive in avenging his sorry state of affairs. It all started of course when a giant Ikea store opened opposite his humble furniture shop in Norway. Thinking he can weather the changes six months passes and unfortunately capitalism wins, as does common sense, with most consumers wanting to buy things for the moment, not something that will last forever; a reminder of...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Comic Book Resources nailed down an exclusive look at the new Ragnarok (now available on iTunes and On Demand) poster, which was designed by Wonton Soup creator James Stokoe! Check it out!

Mikkel Brænne Sandemose's Ragnarok was written by John Kåre Raake. Pål Sverre Hagen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Bjørn Sundquist, Sofia Helin, and Maria Annette Tanderød Berglyd star.

Synopsis

Archeologist Sigurd Svendsen (Pål Sverre Hagen) has for years been obsessed with the Oseberg Viking ship. The only inscription found on the ship is the enigmatic "man knows little" written in runes. Sigurd is sure that the Oseberg ship contains the answer to the mystery of Ragnarok, the end of days in Norse mythology.

When his friend Allan finds similar runes on a stone from the north of Norway, Sigurd becomes convinced that the runes are in fact a treasure map. Together they mount an expedition group, and their adventure...

A new clip for Ragnarok (now available on iTunes and On Demand) has arrived via Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing, and we have it for you right here. Seems like we've been talking about this one forever, no?

Mikkel Brænne Sandemose's Ragnarok was written by John Kåre Raake. Pål Sverre Hagen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Bjørn Sundquist, Sofia Helin, and Maria Annette Tanderød Berglyd star.

Synopsis

Archeologist Sigurd Svendsen (Pål Sverre Hagen) has for years been obsessed with the Oseberg Viking ship. The only inscription found on the ship is the enigmatic "man knows little" written in runes. Sigurd is sure that the Oseberg ship contains the answer to the mystery of Ragnarok, the end of days in Norse mythology.

When his friend Allan finds similar runes on a stone from the north of Norway, Sigurd becomes convinced that the runes are in fact a treasure map. Together they mount an expedition group,...

Ragnarok debuted this past Friday on iTunes, On Demand, and in limited theatres; and Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing want to make sure it stays on your radar so to kick off the work week, we have another clip and a quick promo spot for the flick.

Be sure to hang on tight as danger lurks below the water in this nail-biting clip from Mikkel Brænne Sandemose's Ragnarok!

The film was written by John Kåre Raake. Pål Sverre Hagen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Bjørn Sundquist, Sofia Helin, and Maria Annette Tanderød Berglyd star.

Synopsis

Archeologist Sigurd Svendsen (Pål Sverre Hagen) has for years been obsessed with the Oseberg Viking ship. The only inscription found on the ship is the enigmatic "man knows little" written in runes. Sigurd is sure that the Oseberg ship contains the answer to the mystery of Ragnarok, the end of days in Norse mythology.

When his friend...