Untitled

International Sales
AB Svensk Filmindustri
SE-169 86 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 680 35 00
Fax: + 46 8 710 44 60
international@sf.se
www.sfinternational.se
You will hear only the sound of my voice
You will hear only the numbers counting down
Calm now, there’s no reason to be afraid
No reason to be afraid
No reason to be afraid
There’s a reason to be afraid
Synopsis
In the middle of a dark December night, psychiatrist
Erik Maria Bark is woken by a telephone call from a
hospital in Stockholm. Detective Inspector Joona Linna
asks for his immediate help in treating an unconscious
patient suffering from acute trauma. He hopes that Erik
will be able to communicate with the young boy through
hypnosis, enabling the police to question him. They hope
to find out who so brutally murdered his parents and
younger sister, in order to track down and save his older
sister before it is too late.
But it has been ten years since Erik last practised
hypnosis, and he has promised never to do it again.
Painful memories from that time make their presence
felt, contributing to his decision not to help the police.
When Erik finally allows himself to be persuaded, it
is as if the floodgates have been opened to a torrent of
unforeseen happenings. Without warning, this violent
and inexplicable course of events impacts with full force
on Erik’s life. His son disappears, and to have a chance of
saving his life, Erik has to confront himself with the past,
with the times when his research-work was laid in ruins
and his marriage seemed on the verge of collapsing.
Director’s
Statement
Mattias Edwall
LASSE HALLSTRÖM
After decades of international successes with films
such as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, Something
to Talk About, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat,
An Unfinished Life, Casanova, The Hoax, Dear
John and Oscar-nominated My Life as a Dog, Lasse
Hallström will direct his first Swedish feature film
in 25 years, The Hypnotist.
The Hypnotist is a character-driven thriller that
really attracted my interest. I have always been
wanting to try my hand at the thriller genre, but not
many opportunities to do that have opened up for me in the US. It is not what people expect from me, so
I was never really considered for them.
Though I may have focused on gentler fare in the
past, I will not shy away from the violent aspects of
this story. I want to tell it in a real and honest way,
and as always I want to see to it that the characters
come alive-performances are always important to me.
Having spent my first 40 years in Stockholm, I know
it quite well and hope to make it a moody backdrop
to the story, trying to pay attention to detail and the
atmosphere of a Stockholm winter. I have always
been interested in stories that are genre crossovers.
The drama comedy is a genre mix that I have felt very
comfortable with, and hopefully adding the thriller
element won't feel foreign to me. I am looking
forward to returning to work in my home country,
for the first time in 25 years!
Based on International best-seller The Hypnotist
Production Facts
The Hypnotist
by Lars Kepler
Director Lasse Hallström
Genre Thriller
Country of Origin Sweden
Production Year 2011/2012
First Release September 28, 2012
Duration TBA
International Sales AB Svensk Filmindustri
Cast Mikael Persbrandt, Tobias Zilliacus, Lena Olin,
Jonatan Bökman, Oscar Pettersson, Helena af
Sandeberg, Anna Ascarate, Eva Melander.
Production Company AB Svensk Filmindustri & Sonet Film AB
Producers Börje Hansson, Peter Possne & Bertil Ohlsson
Script Paolo Vacirca & Peter Asmussen
D.O.P Mattias Montero
Editor Tomas Täng & Sebastian Amundsen
Production Designer Lasse Westfelt
Costume Designer Karin Sundvall
Make-up Designer Jenny Fred
Sound Designer Aleksander Karshikoff
Composer Oscar Fogelström
Stills Photographer Fredrik Hjerling & Alexandra Aristarhova
Cast
MIKAEL PERSBRANDT
The Hypnotist Dr. Erik Maria Bark
(The Hobbit, In a Better World)
TOBIAS ZILLIACUS
Detective Inspector Joona Linna
(Upswing, Beyond Enemy Lines)
LENA OLIN
Simone, Wife of the Hypnotist
(Remember Me, Chocolat)
Persbrandt is one of Sweden’s greatest
actors of all time. He has worked at
the Royal Dramatic Theatre in
Stockholm, and has appeared in
countless film and TV roles. In
January 2009, he won a Guldbagge
Award for best leading actor in Jan
Troell’s Everlasting Moments, and in
2011 played the lead role in Susanne
Bier’s film In A Better World, which
went on to win an Oscar for best
foreign film. He also plays the lead
role in the upcoming trilogy about
Agent Carl Hamilton based on the
novels by Jan Guillou, as well as the
role of Beorn in Peter Jackson's
The Hobbit.
Tobias Zilliacus trained at the Theatre
Academy Helsinki 1991-1995. After
graduating from the academy, he
began working at the Viirus Theatre
in Helsinki where he appeared in
some 20 productions and also
directed for the stage. Zilliacus’s
feature film debut was in Upswing
(2002), after which he played the lead
role in the war drama Beyond Enemy
Lines (2004). In 2009, Tobias starred
as the mortally ill gardener Visa
Vuorio in the film One Foot Under,
and most recently he played the male
lead in the children’s film Iris (2011).
Tobias will be playing Joona Linna in
all eight upcoming thrillers based on
the books by Lars Kepler.
Lena Olin trained at the Stockholm
Academy of Dramatic Arts 1976-79.
During the 1980s, she joined the Royal
Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm where
she took part in many productions
directed by Ingmar Bergman. Her
feature film breakthrough came with a
specially written lead role in Ingmar
Bergman’s TV film After The
Rehearsal (1984). The role led to her
landing the part of Sabina in The
Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988),
which became her international
breakthrough as an actress. Lena Olin
enjoyed a further breakthrough in
2002, when she landed the role as Irina
Derevko in the American spy series
Alias. The role won her an Emmy
nomination for best female supporting
actress in 2003.
Behind the
Production
LOCATIONS
The Hypnotist was shot in different locations in
Stockholm as well as in the north of Sweden. The first
winter footage was shot in December to capture the city’s
Christmas atmosphere, whereas the final scenes, shot at
the end of an unusually sunny and spring-like March, had
to be covered in fake snow to keep their winter mood.
The scenes at the cabin where Benjamin is taken by Lydia
were shot during a week in Städdejaur, as well as a week
at the Kronan Studio in Luleå in the north of Sweden.
The end scenes with the old bus going through the ice
proved a tough challenge, and were eventually shot at the
Barrandov Studio in Prague in collaboration with SFX
company Flash Barrandov Special Effects Ltd. The
shooting took place in mid-April and completed 58 days
of filming.
CAMERA TECHNIQUE
Camera: Alexa ST.
4:3 censor
Vantage Anamorphic lens 2.0
Recording Format: ARRI RAW – 2880 x 1556 pixels
24 fps
Format: 1:2,35 Cinemascope
The Kepler
Film Series
The Hypnotist is the first one out in the planned series of
eight films and principal shooting took off in January 2012,
with a Swedish theatrical release planned for September 28,
2012. The Paganini Contract is planned for a 2013 release
and the work on the script has already begun.
The Hypnotist
Produced by: AB Svensk Filmindustri and Sonet Film AB
Producers: Börje Hansson, Peter Possne and Bertil Ohlsson The Paganini Contract
Produced by: AB Svensk Filmindustri and Sonet Film AB
Producers: Börje Hansson and Peter Possne
Börje Hansson and Peter Possne have been involved in most
of the Swedish box-office hits over the last 20 years like the
Oscar-nominated As It Is in Heaven and the 2011 Swedish
Oscar entry, Simple Simon. Bertil Ohlsson was executive
producer for the International successes Amadeus and The
Unbearable Lightness of Being, and he also produced Lasse
Hallström’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
Who is
Lars Kepler?
Anna-Lena Ahlström
Our intention was always to remain
a secret. Not even our own children
knew that we were Lars Kepler.
Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril
Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril, both established
writers with several books published, teamed up
professionally for the first time to write The Hypnotist.
The pseudonym Lars Kepler allowed them to separate
their earlier, independent work, from this new common
authorship. As they wanted to be judged without
prejudice, they decided to submit the manuscript to the
publisher anonymously. Five days later the publisher,
Albert Bonniers, knew they had a nail-biting best-seller
in the vein of Stieg Larsson's novels. Still the Ahndorils did not want to reveal their true
identity. With successful separate careers, and a well
functioning life together with their three children, they
felt no need to come clean. As expected, the media
launched a huge investigation, and it did not take long
before one of Sweden's largest tabloids paid them a visit
at their summer house, urging them to confess that they
had written one of the most widely read European
books of 2010.
The Kepler
Crime Novels
One month after the authors submitted the
manuscript to the publisher, The Hypnotist by Lars
Kepler, was at the centre of heated auctions at the
London international book fair, involving some of the
world's leading crime publishers. The novel was sold to
25 countries within just a few weeks of the fair, and has
now been translated into 36 languages, published in
over 40 countries altogether.
The Hypnotist is the first novel of eight about
Detective Inspector Joona Linna. The second novel,
The Paganini Contract, is considered by many to be
possibly even more nerve-racking than the first and
has been picked up by 30 languages so far. The third
one in line, The Fire Witness, was released on the date
of 11/11, 2011. The remaining five novels are planned to
come out one per year.
THE HYPNOTIST
Worldwide
Publishers
1. Albanian
2. Portuguese Brazil
3. Bulgarian
4. Canadian
5. Complex Chinese
6. Croatian
7. Czech Republic
8. Danish
9. Uk&Commonwealth
10. Estonian
11. Finnish
12. French
Dituria
Intrinseca
Enthusiast
McClelland&Stewart
Locus Publishing
Fraktura
Host
Gyldendal
Blue Door HC
Pegasus
Tammi
Actes Sud
13. German
14. Greek
15. Dutch
16. Hungarian
17. Israel
18. Icelandic
19. Italian
20. Japanese
21. Catalan
22. Korean
23. Latvian
24. Lithuanian
Lübbe
Patakis
De Bezige Bij
Cartaphilus
Modan
Forlagid
Mauri Spagnol
Hayakawa
Ara Amsterdam
Minumsa
Apgads Mansards
Meda Incognito
25. Norwegian
26. Polish
27. Portuguese Portugal
28. Romanian
29. Russian
30. Serbian
31. Slovak Republic
32. Spanish
33. Simplified Chinese
34. Thai
35. Turkish
36. Us
THE PAGANINI CONTRACT
THE FIRE WITNESS
1. 2. Portugese Brazil
3. Bulgarian
4. Canadian
5. 6. Croatian
7. Czech Republic
8. Danish
9. UK&Commonwealth
10. Estonian
11. Finnish
12. French
13. German
14. Greek
15. Dutch
16. Hungarian
17. Israel
18. Icelandic
1. 2. 3. 4. Canadan (+ book 4&5)
5. 6. 7. Czech (+ book 4&5)
8. Danish (+ book 4&5)
9. UK&Commonwealth (+ book 4&5)
10. 11. Finnish (+ book 4&5)
12. French (+ book 4&5)
13. German (+ book 4&5)
14. 15. Dutch
16. 17. 18. -
19. Italian
20. Japanese
21. Catalan
22. 23. 24. Lithuanian
25. Norwegian
26. Polish
27. Portugese Portugal
28. Romanian
29. Russian
30. 31. Slovak Republic
32. Spanish
33. 34. 35. Turkish
36. US
CappelenDamm
Czarne
Porto Editora
Editura Trei
Corpus
Alnari
Ikar
Planeta
Beijing Fonghong Media Co.
Sanskrit Book
Pegasus
Sara Crichton Books/
Farrar Strauss & Giroux
19. Italian
20. 21. Catalan
22. 23. 24. 25. Norwegian (+ book 4&5)
26. Polish
27. Portugese Portugal (+ book 4&5)
28. 29. 30. 31. 32. Spanish
33. 34. 35. 36. US (+ book 4&5)
Cast
TOBIAS ZILLIACUS
Detective Inspector Joona Linna
(Upswing, Beyond Enemy Lines)
Tobias Zilliacus trained at the Theatre
Academy Helsinki 1991-1995. After
graduating from the academy, he
began working at the Viirus Theatre
in Helsinki where he appeared in
some 20 productions and also
directed for the stage. Zilliacus’s
feature film debut was in Upswing
(2002), after which he played the lead
role in the war drama Beyond Enemy
Lines (2004). In 2009, Tobias starred
as the mortally ill gardener Visa
Vuorio in the film One Foot Under,
and most recently he played the male
lead in the children’s film Iris (2011).
Tobias will be playing Joona Linna in
all eight upcoming thrillers based on
the books by Lars Kepler.
Production Facts
The Paganini Contract
Based on
International best-seller The Paganini Contract
by Lars Kepler
Director
Kjell Sundvall
Genre
Thriller
Country of Origin
Sweden
Start of Principal Shooting
First Release
Duration
International Sales
Cast
Production Company
August 2012
September 2013 (TBC)
TBA
AB Svensk Filmindustri
Tobias Zilliacus as Joona Linna
AB Svensk Filmindustri & Sonet Film AB
Director’s Statement
When I read The Paganini Contract I just
couldn’t put it down until the last page. It’s
an extremely fast-paced and exciting story
KJELL SUNDVALL
– perfect for an explosive and thrilling
Having directed almost 40 films in 30 years, Sundvall is one of
film. It will be a true pleasure to direct the
Sweden’s most popular directors. He has become a veteran in
second book by Lars Kepler.
the crime and thriller genre with titles such as The Last
Kjell Sundvall
Witness (1993), The Hunters (1996), The Last Contract (1998),
The Threat (2004), more than 10 features of the successful
Beck crime series, and most recently the box office hit False
Trail (2011) with over 500,000 admissions.
“I’m very excited about passing on the
baton to Kjell Sundvall. Kjell is one of
Multifaceted Sundvall has also shown great success in the
Scandinavia’s most experienced thriller
comedy genre with several award-winning titles: The Guy in
directors and The Paganini Contract
should fit him like a glove”.
Lasse Hallström
the Grave Next Door (2002) and box office hit In Bed With
Santa (1999) with over 500,000 admissions, to mention a few.
A remake of In Bed With Santa has been released in Germany
under the title Meine Schöne Bescherung (2007), while a
French remake is underway.
Synopsis
On a summer night, the dead body of a woman is
found on board an abandoned yacht drifting around
the Stockholm archipelago. Her lungs are filled with
brackish water, but there are no traces of this water on
her clothes or other parts of her body.
The next day a man is found dead in his palatial
apartment in Stockholm. The man is hanging from a
noose fastened to the lamp hook in the ceiling. How
did it happen? The room has a high ceiling, and there
is not a single piece of furniture in the room, nothing
to climb on. Nevertheless, Detective Inspector Joona
Linna is convinced that it is suicide.
This is only the prelude to a dizzyingly intense and
dangerous course of events.
There are certain agreements that cannot be broken
off, even when you are dead…
It takes a while for the man to realize
that the woman is dead.
In her long hair there is a clip
shaped like a white dove; a peace dove.
When the old man approaches the body
and touches her cheek the head tips forward
and a thin rivulet of water trickles
from her lips, down her chin.
International Sales
AB Svensk Filmindustri
SE-169 86 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 680 35 00
Fax: + 46 8 710 44 60
international@sf.se
www.sfinternational.se
CREDITS NOT CONCTRACTUAL