Denmark's Iben Hjejle and New Zealand's Martin Henderson top the international casting line-up for veteran Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's Skagerrak, the highly anticipated English-language follow-up to his Berlin Silver Bear-winning Mifune

Produced by Denmark's Nimbus Film by Lars Bredo Rahbek and Bo Ehrhardt, Skagerrak started shooting Monday April 22 on location in Scotland, where Hjejle and Henderson will be joined by Bronagh Gallagher (The Commitments, Pulp Fiction), Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting, Black Hawk Down) and Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot) as well as Helen Baxendale, James Cosmo, Scott Handy and Simon McBurney.

Based on an original screenplay by Kragh-Jacobsen (pictured) and writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen (Mifune, The King Is Alive, Flickering Lights), Skagerrak is the story of Danish Marie (Hjejle) and Irish Sophie partying their way around the world ending up in Northern Scotland. Out of money and luck ambitious Sophie pressures Marie into accepting a lucrative job as a surrogate mother. However, life takes a dramatic turn, and Marie finds herself wanting to terminate her pregnancy, on the run from the future parents, and searching for Sophie's old flame, Ken. After the location shoot in Scotland the production moves to the Film I Väst Trollhättan Studios in Sweden.

Iben Hjejle sprang to international attention in 1999 with the worldwide release of Mifune, and has since starred in a number of English-language titles including High Fidelity opposite John Cusack, The Emperor's New Clothes with Ian Holm and Dreaming Of Julia with Harvey Keitel.

New Zealand-born rising star Martin Henderson, who Vanity Fair labelled 'one of Hollywood's hottest' in their April issue, can soon be seen opposite Nicolas Cage in John Woo's WW2 actioner Windtalkers as well as in Dreamworks ' US remake of The Ring with Naomi Watts.

Skagerrak is co-financed by the UK's BBC Films, Film i Väst, and co-produced by Scotland's Umbrella Productions (David Muir). Additional backers include Alta Films, Concorde Filmverleih, the Danish Film Institute, DR-TV, Egmont Entertainment, Glasgow Regional Film Fund, Memfis Film, Monopole Pathe, Nordic Film & TV Fund, Scottish Screen and Zentropa Entertainments. International sales are handled by Trust Film Sales.

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