23 August, 2006
By Robbert Blokland in AmsterdamSource: ScreenDaily.com
The film will have its world premiere Sept 1 at the 63rd Venice Film Festival, where it is screening in competition.
The $21.8m (€17m) wartime thriller is the most expensive predominantly Dutch-language production ever made and tells the story of a Jewish girl (Dutch actress Carice van Houten) who joins the Dutch resistance to find out who betrayed her family.
Black Book is Verhoeven’s first feature in six years and his first European film in more than two decades. The film is a renewed collaboration between Verhoeven and his regular Dutch scriptwriter Gerard Soeteman, who previously worked on Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange and Flesh + Blood.
Black Book has been set up as a Dutch/German/UK co-production between Fu Works, Hector Films (Netherlands), Motel Films (Netherlands), Egoli Tossell Film (Germany), Clockwork Pictures (UK) and VIP Medienfonds 4.
The film’s distribution rights (available through ContentFilm) have already been pre-sold to 50 countries, including to Pathe for France and Switzerland, to Tartan in the UK, to Happinet in Japan, to Nordisk in Scandinavia, to Consorcio Europa in Brazil, to Pt Amero Mitra in Indonesia, to Umut Sanat in Turkey and to Golden Scene in Hong Kong.
Producer San Fu Maltha claims there is a lot of interest from American distributors, but no deals have been closed yet.
The cast is led by Dutch film star Van Houten, Halina Reijn and Dutch actors Thom Hoffman, Peter Blok and Derek de Lint. The lead German parts are played by Sebastian Koch, Christian Berkel and Waldemar Kobus.
