MAY/JUNE 2017
NEWS
06.27.17
In
memory of beloved Swedish actor MICHAEL NYQVIST, who passed away
today at age 56 after a year-long battle with lung cancer. It has been a
privilege to honor him by
The Michael Nyqvist Archives by Coymoon
Creations.
Here are some photos of Stellan and Michael during
the filming of ARN.
06.05.17
Director
Terry Gilliam has finally finished filming his long-gestating passion
project THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. The director has tried to
make the film a whopping eight times in the past nineteen years, leading
to it becoming one of the most infamous projects trapped in development
hell. This latest attempt took years to get off the ground but finally
started shooting earlier in 2017 with a star studded cast including
Stellan. The fantasy-adventure-comedy film is scheduled for a 2018
release.
A
teaser trailer (view
here) has been released for BORG/ENROE, a film about one
of the world's greatest tennis icons Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) and
his biggest rival, the young and talented John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf)
and their legendary duel during the 1980's Wimbledon tournament. Stellan
stars as Lennart Bergelin, the coach who guided Borg to the top.
Directed by Janus Metz Pedersen with a script by Ronnie Sandahl, the
film will open in Norway and Sweden this September. There is still no US
release date.
06.03.17
The
latest round of Norwegian Film Institute funding has been announced with
an exciting new film topping the list of projects receiving support.
Hans Petter Moland is set to direct an adaptation of Per Petterson’s
award-winning novel OUT STEALING HORSES with Stellan in the lead
role. This will mark their 5th collaboration. The novel was published in
2003 and has been translated into 60 languages. The story is set
in 1999 and follows Trond (Skarsgård)
who has moved to a remote house in the forest where he can grieve the
death of his wife. His idyllic country retreat is disturbed when he
meets a neighbor whom he knew back in the summer of 1948. That
summer, his father and his first love both disappeared from his life.
Budgeted at 4.1 million euros, production is set to start in February
2018. Moland is currently working on the English-language version of "In
Order of Disappearance".
As
previously reported back in January, Stellan received an honorary
doctorate at Lund University on Friday. The ceremony called
"promotion" was held in Latin in Lund Cathedral. The day was performed
traditionally. When the doctorate candidates did a procession from
University to the Cathedral where the ceremony was held, the cannonball
sounded over the city. Wille's artillery regimented salute for every new
doctor. Lund University emphasizes that Stellan has a "deeply reflective
and thoughtful attitude toward his work as an actor and in his place in
film production".
Stellan said, "I feel honestly
honored." In a conversation in the LUX aula with filmmakers
Ann-Kristin Wallengren and Erik Hedling, he offered insights and stories
from the film and the theater world. Wallengren praised him for his
performance in the BBC "River" series because he is neither a good guy
nor a bad guy. Stellan shared, "When it comes to portraying reality, one
should strive to complicate it and shade it. If we do not think Hitler
was human, how can we keep Hitler in check. We must be able to fully
humanize the evil person to keep an eye on the evil in our hearts."
When he speaks of various
directors, he mimics Ingmar Bergman, Bo Widerberg or Lars Von Trier, and
there is laughter in the audience. As to his future in acting, he
replied, "If I didn't think it was so much fun, I wouldn't do it
anymore." When someone in the audience asks if he feels the same passion
for acting as when he was young, he answers that it's the process that
makes it such fun. He is less interested in the final product. In the
end, he admits it's still "hard, and you're nervous and afraid all the
time."
For a Swedish interview with
Stellan at Lund University,
click here.
RETURN
TO MONTAUK will open in France on June 14 but there will be an
advanced showing at the Cinéma Louxor in Paris on June 6. Director
Volker Schlöndorff and actress Nina Hoss will be in attendance. The
film will open in Sweden on September 15. Here is the French poster and
a few new photos:
05.20.17
Swedish
actress Alicia Vikander is set to lead the voice cast of upcoming
stop-motion animation film MOOMINS AND THE WINTER WONDERLAND, set
for global release in December. Stellan has also joined the cast as the
voice of Moomin Papa and will executive produce. The Moomins were
created by the Finnish writer Tove Jansson in a series of books and
comic strips, originally published in Swedish in the 1940s. This new
animation follows Filmkompaniet’s 2010 film "Moomins and the Comet
Chase", which was also voiced by Stellan as well as son Alexander. It
was released in 3D and distributed in over 80 countries.
05.12.17
Volker
Schlöndorff's RETURN TO MONTAUK opened
in Germany yesterday. The Bavarian daily newspaper, the Münchner Merkur,
asked Stellan a few questions about the film. He plays a narcissistic
writer called Max, who mourns the failures in his life.
Stellan: "He's an idiot. The women
around him are much stronger and wiser than he is. In this respect, one
could almost speak of a feminist film. Men who are capable of
self-reflection are likely to recapture some typically masculine
behavioral patterns in Max. He's a hopeless case, but I like him. Are we
not human beings somehow all hopeless cases? Max does not injure other
people out of conscious malice, but acts only highly childishly. In
fact, he even tries to be a good person - but unfortunately he is
anything but good in this discipline."
Schlöndorff has said that everyone on the set had to rummage through
their own past but Stellan says, "That's probably what he means for
himself. I'm just not the type. Sure, I've made thousands of mistakes
over the years, hurting people, and I'm sorry. But I do not want to turn
the wheel of history back, because I like my life. I do not want to be
in the past and think, 'Oh, I would have done that at that time...' I
find the present much too interesting!"
Describing the film's director,
Stellan says, "He is flexible and open and leaves you freedom. At each
scene, we were able to try out different variations. This is fantastic,
because only if you forget your acting technique and its tricks and let
yourself be completely absorbed in the respective situation can the
spontaneous, irrational, unique moments arise that cannot be planned. I
despise filmmakers who want to set things beforehand - then nothing is
alive anymore, then the result remains cold and dead. If someone
prescribes to turn my head to the left in a certain line of text, I
break into laughter. I think, 'Why did you spend money on me at all?'
And then I just do what I want!" (Laughs.)
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