Kelly Reilly to star in Birger Larsen’s The Ice Princess

British actress Kelly Reilly has signed to star in Danish director Birger Larsen’s English-language adaptation of Camilla Läckberg’s best-selling thriller The Ice Princess.

TF1 International is launching pre-sales this market. Larsen, director of the acclaimed Danish police series The Killing which racked up fans across Europe, will be in Cannes next week to present the project.

It is one of three high-profile projects been launched by TF1 International’s new sales chief Sabine Chemaly, also comprising Christian Carion’s Letter from an Unknown Woman (Lettre d’une inconnue) and the Philippe Claudel’s Avant l”Hiver.

Cillian Murphy has recently signed to co-star opposite Mélanie Laurent in Carion’s adapation of Stefan Zweig’s popular short story about a pop star who receives a life-changing letter from an admirer. The film produced by Les Films du 24 is due shoot in the second half of 2012.

The Ice Princess, being produced by UGC Images and Les Films du 24, will shoot in February and March 2013. UGC Distribution will handle its release in France.  

Reilly, who will hit the big screen opposite Denzel Washington in Robert Zemeckis’ Flight later this year, will play a woman who discovers the truth about her childhood while investigating the murder of her best friend.

Läckberg’s is Sweden’s all-time best-selling author. Her books have sold more than 7 million copies in 45 countries.

Claudel’s Avant L’Hiver will star Kristen Scott Thomas, Leila Bekhti and Daniel Auteuil, which is due to shoot this autumn.  Auteuil will play a fifty-something surgeon with a perfect life and wife (Scott Thomas), who falls for a young woman, played by Bekhti.

Chemaly took over as executive vice president of sales at TF1 International just before Cannes, following the departure of Nicholas Eschbach.  Chemaly, who previously worked at TF1 International, was the commercial director at Mipcom, immediately prior to taking up the post.