Theo James, Ben Kingsley head to Copenhagen for corruption thriller

The Copenhagen Film Fund is investing $440,000 (€400,000) in Per Fly’s English-language thriller about economic corruption, Backstabbing For Beginners.

Ben Kingsley and Theo James are confirmed to star in the story of a Dane caught in a power struggle with corrupt colleagues while working for the UN’s Oil For Food programme.

Fly co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel Pyne and Fly directs for Danish production companies Creative Alliances and Parts & Labor DK. Producers are Malene Blenkov, Lars Knudsen, Nikolaj Vibe Michelsen and Jay van Hoy.

Thanks to the Fund’s investment, the film is set to shoot large sections in the Copenhagen area starting in April. The project has already started shooting in Morocco.

Backstabbing For Beginners has a total budget of $8.5m (€7.7m) with other financing coming from the Danish Film Institute and Nordic, US and Canadian investors.

Copenhagen Film Fund, set up three years ago, has also backed projects including The Danish Girl and The Bridge III.

“It is important for Copenhagen Film Fund to demonstrate that we also back larger Danish projects aimed at the international market. For that reason, Per Fly’s first international feature film is a perfect fit. It is an interesting project in every sense, with large scale international financing behind it and great potential, featuring established names like Ben Kingsley and Theo James in the cast,” said Thomas Gammeltoft, CEO of Copenhagen Film Fund.

“It is important to me that we come to Copenhagen to shoot parts of the film. Even though the actors are speaking English, and Backstabbing for Beginners is an international story about corruption, it’s important to me that a Danish audience can relate to the film and want to see it. That is my point of departure. And it was all made possible because of the Copenhagen Film Fund,” added Fly, whose credits include The Inheritance and Monica Z.