Swedish director Tomas Alfredson has bought the film rights for Astrid Lindgren’s novel The Brothers Lionheart.

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, whose award-winning  John le Carré adaptation Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for UK’s Working Title has now grossed $81 million worldwide, has purchased the film rights for Swedish author Astrid Lindgren’s children’s fantasy novel The Brothers Lionheart, which was made into a film in 1977 by Swedish director Olle Hellbom.

According to Swedish daily DN, both Alfredson and producer Peter Pjodor Gustafsson are in Cannes to discuss the project, which will have a budget around $30 million.

The producer of God Willing (2006) and the Pettson & Findus franchise (1999-2005), Gustafsson confirmed he was working on “a project at a very early stage” and, accordingly, intended to take leave from his job.

Twice awarded the Guldbagge – Sweden’s national film prize – for Four Shades of Brown (2004) and Let the Right One In (2008) - Alfredson had declared after finishing the latter that he would not be making films “in the foreseeable future,” because he found the local industry “drained of power, courage, and gravity.”

 

 

 

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