A third film about Norway's favourite neurotic Elling - the main character from the Oscar nominated Norwegian box-office hit - is set for the big screen, producer Dag Alveberg of Maipo Film confirmed this week.

"This is not a case of boiling soup on a thin bone," he told ScreenDaily.com "There are four books about Elling; the first film was based on the third book, the second on the two first and the third will be based on the fourth. I like the idea of it becoming a trilogy."

Alveberg previously told Screen that he would only go ahead with another Elling film if the second instalment had more than 300.000 admissions in Norway.

However, early reactions to the second film, Mother's Elling, are apparently so good that he no longer has any doubt about that. The film opens on Oct 10 on an impressive 70 prints and sees Elling go with his seriously ill mother on a vacation to Spain.

Both the second and third films promise to be darker than Petter Naess' 2001 comedy-drama. Newcomer Eva Isaksen directed Mother's Elling, but Alveberg has yet to decide on a director for the third film, which is set for a 2005 release.

The script has already been written by Aase Vikene, and all the actors from the first film have signed on, including the popular Per Christian Ellefsen and Sven Nordin. The book's title is Elsk Meg I Morgen [literally Love Me Tomorrow].