Dream team behind fantasy novel adaptation
Acclaimed director Levan Akin is at the helm of The Circle, a big screen adaptation of the first book in the popular Engel Fors trilogy by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren. ABBA legend Benny Andersson is among the producers.
By Nia Daniels 15 Apr 2013
Acclaimed director Levan Akin is at the helm of The Circle, a big screen adaptation of the first book in the popular Engel Fors trilogy by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren. ABBA legend Benny Andersson is among the producers.
Set in a Swedish town, the trilogy centres on a group of teenage girls who discover they are witches, and have to unite to save the world. The two following books are Fire, and The Key - the set has been translated into 23 languages.
Director Levan Akin, who is represented by United Agents in London, has been very much involved in the project from the start, remaining on board even though the rights to the adaptation changed hands along the way. Akin is writing the screenplay with one of the book’s authors, Sara Bergmark Elfgren, herself also a screenwriter.
Akin, keen to make a film that is different from others in its genre, said: “With this story, we need not imitate others. We can find an original tone.”
The production company taking The Circle forward is RMV Film, the newly formed shingle from ABBA maestro Benny Andersson and his son, Ludvig. Producer Cecilia Norman Mardell is also on board. In fact, it was Engel Fors fan Ludvig who introduced his father to the idea of bringing the book to the big screen when he heard of the previous development plans stalling. Thus RMV Film was born, and the rights to the trilogy secured.
Shooting on The Circle is anticipated to be underway in early 2014, with open castings to be held all over Sweden.
Director Levan Akin, who is represented by United Agents in London, has been very much involved in the project from the start, remaining on board even though the rights to the adaptation changed hands along the way. Akin is writing the screenplay with one of the book’s authors, Sara Bergmark Elfgren, herself also a screenwriter.
Akin, keen to make a film that is different from others in its genre, said: “With this story, we need not imitate others. We can find an original tone.”
The production company taking The Circle forward is RMV Film, the newly formed shingle from ABBA maestro Benny Andersson and his son, Ludvig. Producer Cecilia Norman Mardell is also on board. In fact, it was Engel Fors fan Ludvig who introduced his father to the idea of bringing the book to the big screen when he heard of the previous development plans stalling. Thus RMV Film was born, and the rights to the trilogy secured.
Shooting on The Circle is anticipated to be underway in early 2014, with open castings to be held all over Sweden.
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