Shia LaBeouf, Sverrir Gudnason, Michael Nyqvist, Janus Metz and Ruben Östlund were among the household names that brought glamour to FilmVäst’s annual press gathering on Saturday.  The talents were gathered to promote a handful of high profile international projects backed by FilmVäst, Sweden’s largest regional film centre.

“This year the projects we’re representing are much more high profile internationally. We’re just adapting to the film industry becoming more global and to the need to have key elements in place to make bigger projects more attractive to co-financiers,” said Tomas Eskilsson, Head of FilmVäst to nordicfilmandtvnews. 

Four projects will be shot entirely or partly in English. 

- Lars von Trier’s highly anticipated The House that Jack Built is described by Zentropa producer Louise Vesth as ‘a digression about artful killing’. “We follow a serial killer who takes more and more chances as he wants to turn his murders into a piece of art” says Vesth. The €8.7M  horror pic will be shot in two parts – like Nymphomaniac. Casting with US and European talent is under way and filming starts this fall. 

- In the film Borg/McEnroe produced by SF Studios, US star Shia LaBeouf and Icelandic/Swedish actor Sverrir Gudnason play legendary tennis rivals John McEnroe and Björn Borg respectively, and Stellan Skarsgård Borg’s coach. Janus Metz (Armadillo) directs from a script by Ronnie Sandahl (Underdog). Filming starts this fall, with a delivery a year later.  FilmVäst is putting up 20% of the financing for The House that Jack Built and Borg/McEnroe.  

- Ruben Östlund’s The Square produced by Plattform Produktion stars US actress Elisabeth Moss and Danish actor Claes Bang (The Bridge). The humorous study of morality starts filming in June and the premiere is set for 2017. 

- Alexander Payne’s My Saga is based on Norwegian best-selling author Karl Ove Knausgaard’s series of essays published in the New York Times last year. Zentropa Sweden’s producer Madeleine Ekman said the idea for the film came from US producer Albert Berger (Bona Fide productions) who read the articles while on a plane between L.A. and Gothenburg. Filming of the US/Scandinavian co-production will most probably take place in Canada and Minnesota where the story takes place says Ekman. 

Other major projects announced include Michael Nyqvist’s directing debut with the comedy Just Another Vet (Små & stora kryp) based on a script by Anders Tempelman. Nyqvist plays a depressed provincial vet who dreams of sailing around the world. The film produced by Carola and Börje Hansson of Bright Moving Pictures starts principal photography in September. Twentieth Century Fox handles distribution. 

In Cannes FilmVäst is associated to The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki by Juho Kuosmanen screening at Un Certain Regard, Sharbhanoo Sadat’s Wolf and Sheep selected at the Directors’ Fornight, Alexandra Therese Keinig’s Girl Lost shown at Cannes Ecrans Juniors and the short filmFight on a Swedish Beach by Simon Vahlne vying for a Palme d’or. 

Photo: The Square, Ruben Ostlund (left) Erik Hemmendorff (right) - photo filmvast.se