The biopic The Greatest Man (Den bedste mand) inspired by the life of Danish boxer Jørgen Hansen will be brought to the silver screen by Mikkel Serup for Nimbus Film. 

This is the second recent boxing biopic coming out of the Nordic region  with the Finnish film The Happiest Day in the  Life of Olli Mäki, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize in Cannes. 

Hansen won the title of European champion in welterweight nine times in the 1970s and was one of Denmark’s finest boxers. The film based on a script by Serup, Linn-Jeanethe Kyed and Søren Felbo focuses on a man who manages to fight his inner demons and become a living legend, with the unfailing support of his wife. Serup who directed the comedy The Reunion 2 and was concept director on The Killing Season 3, says The Greatest Man is the story of ‘daring to believe that one’s time has come, even if others tell you that it has passed long ago.”

Next to Mikkel Følsgaard (A Royal Affair, Land of Mine) who plays the European champion are Lene Maria Christensen (The Legacy) who plays his wife, Søren Malling as boxing promoter Mogens Palle and British actor Arnold Oceng, as Hansen’s boxing opponent. 

Top crew members include composer Atli Örvarsson (Rams), costume designer Manon Rasmussen (Nymphomaniac) and cinematographer Adam Wallensten (Norskov). 

Filming starts on July 11 and lasts until August 19. The €2.5M (DKK18.8M) film is produced by Lea Løbger for Denmark’s Nimbus Film, in co-production with Croatia’s Mainframe Production and Iceland’s Pegasus Pictures, with co-financing from TV2, support from the Danish Film Institute and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre. Nordisk Film Distribution will release the film domestically on June 17, 2017.