New Department Q film The Marco Effect in pre-production
- Nordisk Film and Nadcon Film will co-produce the screen version of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s crime book of the same name
A 12-year-old Gypsy boy is on the run. The lad, named Marco, is the key to blowing the lid off a multinational corruption scandal revolving around government funds earmarked for development aid in Africa. Police inspector Carl Mørck (Ulrich Thomsen) and his loyal assistant Assad (Zaki Youssef) will find themselves involved in a turbulent race against time, and will have to deal with cynical, powerful ringleaders and a brutal gang, who are also on the hunt for Marco. This is the story of the new Department Q film, entitled The Marco Effect [+see also:
trailer
film profile], penned by Anders August (Britt-Marie Was Here [+see also:
trailer
film profile], A Fortunate Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bille August
film profile]) and newcomer Thomas Porsager. The script is based on Jussi Adler-Olsen’s 2012 crime book of the same name, the fifth instalment in the literary saga.
The crime flick will be directed by Danish helmer Martin Zandvliet, best known for his successful features Applause [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martin Pieter Zandvliet
film profile] (2009), A Funny Man [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2011) and Land of Mine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Louis Hofmann
interview: Martin Zandvliet
film profile] (2015). On this occasion, Zandvliet will once again team up with August and Nordisk Film producer Mikael Rieks (That Time of Year [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Testament of Youth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), both of whom were involved in the making of his first major picture, Applause. Ulrich Thomsen (In Love and War, Darling [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Zaki Youssef (Sons of Denmark [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Ulaa Salim
film profile]) will play the roles previously performed by actors Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares in the first four films in the Department Q crime series, produced by Zentropa.
There are high expectations for this new production, as each chapter of the saga topped the national box office, and the most recent film in the series, Christoffer Boe's The Purity of Vengeance [+see also:
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
film profile] (2018), became the highest-grossing Danish film ever. Given the huge potential of the saga, Nordisk Film confirmed its interest in producing six films featuring detective Carl Mørck and his assistant Assad. In this respect, producer Rieks said: “Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series has spellbound millions of readers across the world, and we are proud that he has put his trust in us at Nordisk Film in turning The Marco Effect into a high-quality thriller-drama with international scope.”
Writer Adler-Olsen has lined up a total of ten books in the series. The best-selling author describes The Marco Effect as “an attempt to show how corruption and greed affect the Western world” and maintains that “the story is more relevant now than ever”.
The Marco Effect is being co-produced by Mikael Rieks for Copenhagen-based firm Nordisk Film and Peter Naderman (The Kindness of Strangers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lone Scherfig
film profile], The Invisible Guardian [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) for Germany's Nadcon Film. Principal photography is set to start in January 2020, while the national premiere is scheduled for October 2020.
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