Nordic major Egmont has taken Scandinavian rights to Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's Skagerrak, the veteran director's second English-language film after 1997's The Island On Bird Street.

Set in the UK, Skagerrak will star Iben Hjejle (pictured), who also appeared in Kragh-Jacobsen's crowd pleasing Dogme-title, Mifune. The romantic-comedy-drama, budgeted at up to $5.5m, follows a Danish girl partying her way through the UK who runs out of money and offers to become a surrogate mother.

Trust Film Sales is handling international sales, with shooting set for April. Other backers on the Nimbus Film produced picture, which Kragh-Jacobsen co-wrote the script with Mifune collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen, include UK funding body Scottish Screen.

"UK backers seem more eager to back no-name young directors making a debut rather than an original project from a multiple award-winning director like Soren [Kragh-Jacobsen]," said producer Lars Bredo Rahbek. "But with our new sparkling 3rd draft, things seem to be moving in the right direction."