Genz plots Terribly Happy English language remake

Genz will reunite with Thomas Gammeltoft, his producer on the $4m original, which sold more than 270,000 tickets in Denmark and earned five 2009 Bodil Awards from Danish critics.

Gammeltoft and New York-based producer Carol Polakoff are seeking US partners on the project, which Polakoff said would allow Genz to approach the dark comedy from “an entirely different Point of view.”

Genz co-adapted Terribly Happy from Erling Jepsen’s novel about a troubled police officer who is dispatched to a mysterious community on the swampy Jutland peninsula. Oscilloscope released the film in the US last weekend.

Howard Rodman (Savage Grace) is writing the US version and is expected to deliver his latest draft within weeks.

Gersh Agency’s Frank Wuliger is packaging the project and represents North American rights with Jay Cohen. They plan to go out to domestic buyers next month.

“I felt I wasn’t finished with the material and wanted to explore it further,” Genz said. “When the opportunity for a remake came up I felt I couldn’t let go of this curiosity and energy that bound me to the material.”

“We thought this was an opportunity to get the story out to a wider audience,” Gammeltoft said. “We felt we had the choice perhaps with a higher budget to do things we couldn’t do with a Danish film.

“It’s a rollercoaster ride that has good and evil and a broken man trying to put himself back together,” Polakoff said. “I think it will play like gangbusters for a US audience.”