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.)