Cesar winner Niels Arestrup has joined the cast of Focus Features’ thriller and biggest production to date Hanna, which is set to commence production next week in Europe.

Arestrup won the award for his supporting actor role in A Prophet and joins Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana in the story about a teenage assassin who questions her humanity. Focus holds worldwide rights.

Director Joe Wright will shoot in Finland, Bavaria, Morocco, and Studio Babelsberg in Berlin. Seth Lochhead wrote the initial screenplay and has written subsequent drafts, as have David Farr, Joe Penhall and Wright.

Leslie Holleran is producing Hanna with the team of Marty Adelstein and Scott Nemes, who are in post-production on The Experiment. Barbara A Hall, is serving as executive producer

Focus senior vice-president of European production Teresa Moneo is supervising for president of production John Lyons.