Scherfig, August team for Serious Game

Two of the biggest talents in Scandinavian cinema are to join forces as Danish writer-director Lone Scherfig and Swedish actress-director Pernilla August are to collaborate on €5 million costume epic/love story The Serious Game. “It’s a Scandinavian dream team,” said Patrik Andersson, who produces alongside Fredrik Henig.

The film, which August will direct Scherfig’s screenplay, is based on the classic novel by Hjalmar Söderberg. It’s a love story about a couple who meet early in life, go their separate ways and then meet again when they are married to other people. When they start an affair, the consequences on both their lives are profound.

The Serious Game is being made through Stockholm-based B-Reel Feature Films.

The book has been filmed twice before. However, B-Reel are promising a costume title in the vein of Jane Campion and Andrea Arnold’s work. Shooting is due to begin in 2013.

Here in Cannes, B-Reel has confirmed that rising Swedish actress Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair) is to play the lead role in Hotel, Lisa Langseth’s psychological drama. The film is being coproduced by SVT, Film i Vast and Nimbus with support by SFI and DFI.

The Stockholm company is also working on two feature docs: Palme is about murdered Swedish politician Olaf Palme. Meanwhile, Stig Björkman is making another Ingmar Bergman doc:Fanny, Alexander & I, which looks at the process of turning Bergman’s Fanny & Alexander into a theatre production.

Also on B-Reel’s current slate include Mikail Macimain’s love story/international thriller Gentlemen & Gangsters, due to shoot early next year.