Shoot date set for Renny Harlin's Mannerheim

After more than 10 years of preparations, Finnish Hollywood-director Renny Harlin’s come-back to local filmmaking – the $18m (€13m) Mannerheim, Finland’s most expensive feature to date– is finally scheduled to commence principal photography at Hungary’s HCC Studios in September.

The production was twice suspended last year, as Danish financiers pulled out.

However Finnish producer Makus Selin, of Solar Films, confirmed it is back on track with support from German producer Harald Reichebner’s Global United Entertainment. Originally planned for Lithuanian facilities, shooting has moved to Hungary after HCC Media Group entered the project, along with Poland’s Donten & Lacroix and Iceland’s Kisi. The film is due to be released worldwide in November 2011.

Scripted by Heikki Vihinen and Marko Leino, and starring Mikko Nousiainen, Mannerheim portrays Finnish historical legend Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim – a Swedish-speaking nobleman, who served the Russian Zar, before he returned to Finland in 1917 to become the father and later president of his country 1944-1946. He died in 1951. Selin and Jukka Helle will produce for Solar subsidiary, Liberty Production; Finnish commercial broadcaster MTV3 Finland has signed for local TV rights.