Norway’s historical film The Last King (Birkebeinerne) by Nils Gaup (pictured) and the Danish black comedy Men and Chicken (Mænd og høns) by Anders Thomas Jensen are among 19 features that just received production funding from the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund.
The Last King produced by Paradox in co-production with Sweden’s Zentropa International, Ireland’s Newgrange Pictures and Hungary’s Proton Cinema was granted €460,000. The epic movie captures the incredible journey in the year 1206 of two men who fled through the mountains with the two year-old prince Haakon Haakonsson to protect him as Norway was ravaged by civil war. The men’s legendary escape on skis was to change the history of Norway forever. According to producer Finn Gjerdrum filming on the ambitious epic movie will start in April, but most of the shooting will take place next winter. Nordisk Film is responsible for Scandinavian distribution. Complete cast and crew will be announced shortly.
Men and Chicken will be the fourth feature as director for the prolific scriptwriter and Susanne Bier’s long-time collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen. The black comedy centres around two outcast brothers who reunite with their relatives to learn a cruel truth about themselves and their family. In one of the leading roles is Mads Mikkelsen who starred in all of Jensen’s previous features. The film produced by M&M Production in co-production with Germany’s Babelsberg Film was granted €320,000. Walt Disney will handle the domestic release in 2015.