17/05/2013 - Danish director Peter Flinth takes over Storm Rosenberg's adaptation of Norwegian author Lars Saabye Christensen's 1984 breakthrough novel about growing up in the 1960s

Following the international success of their Oscar-nominated action adventure, Kon-Tiki [+see also:
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film profile], Norwegian directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning have been showered with American projects - and in agreement with Norwegian producer Jørgen Storm Rosenberg, of Norway's Storm Rosenberg production outfit, they have left their next Norwegian feature, Beatles, with Danish director Peter Flinth, to continue their careers in the US.

"It is important they follow up on their new opportunities, both for themselves and Norwegian cinema," said Rosenberg, adding they will still be creative producers on the project. "Flinth is the perfect replacement: he is used to big projects, and his films reach large audiences."

Adapted from the Norwegian author Lars Saabye Christensen's 1984 breakthrough novel, the €6.7 million Beatles follows four 1960s' teenagers about to enter the grown-up world, their boyish tricks, hopes and disappointments, falling in love, despair … still no group is better than The Fabulous Four. Rosenberg has secured a string of The Beatles' original recordings for film, which will otherwise be scored by a-ha's Magne Furuholmen and scripted by Axel Hellsteinus (Elling, Mother's Elling 2001-2003).

Flinth, who most recently directed the Swedish adaption of Liza Marklund's drama thriller Nobel's Last Will [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2012) and the Swedish Arn franchise - two features and a television series from Jan Guillou's novels - "also grew up with The Beatles".

"They were part of my life then - we tried to set up a group to play their music, but most of the time we discussed what we should call it. Beatles is a beautiful story that takes place in Oslo, but it could happen anywhere," he said. The film will go into production this summer and be domestically released on February 14, 2014, to coincide with the 30^th anniversary of the novel.