Alice Creed gets Dutch remake

Producer Frans van Gestel is at the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR) drumming up international interest in Joram Lürsen’s new thriller Reckless (Bloedlink), a Dutch remake of British kidnap thriller The Disappearance Of Alice Creed.

The film, produced by Oscar-nominated Dutch outfit Topkapi Films, is directly based on J Blakeson’s 2009 thriller, which starred Gemma Arterton, Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston

Speaking to ScreenDaily in Rotterdam, van Gestel said that the new film, now in post-production, is aimed primarily at a Dutch audience.

“Obviously, if you make a remake of a British film, it is not meant to travel around the world. It is meant to work really strongly in the domestic market.”

Van Gestel together with screenwriter Frank Ketelaar was looking for genre stories that could be made for a modest budget of around €1m.

At first, they wanted to “make something like Alice Creed”. Then, after more reflection, they decided to take their own stab at the 2009 film, a kidnap thriller full of plot twists and reversals that featured just three characters.

Topkapi negotiated the remake rights in Cannes. “[The producers] had some interest from the US for a remake…I think they were surprised [the remake] was from the Netherlands.”

Van Gestel said that the new film sticks close to the original.

“In the British version, you have an older guy and a younger guy. In our version, the guy is more of less the same age,” the producer noted.

Newcomer Sarah Chronis plays Laura Temming, a millionaire’s daughter who is kidnapped. The ex-cons who abduct her are played by Marwan Kenzari, best known for his role in kickboxing crime drama Wolf, and Tycho Gernandt.

Chronis is the younger sister of IFFR Hubert Bals fund manager Iwana Chronis.

A Film Benelux will handle the Dutch release and van Gestel added that he hopes to appoint a sales agent soon.

Reckless is in post-production and is set for release this autumn.

Other projects

Topkapi is also pushing ahead with some bigger projects, among them epic costume drama Public Works, set in the Netherlands and New York at the end of the 19th century.

Adapted from novel Publieke Werken by Thomas Rosenboom. Joram Lürsen will direct later this year. Beta Cinema is handling sales.

The company is also preparing Paloma Aguilera Valdebenito’s English-language drama Out Of Love, about a relationship coming apart in violent and emotional fashion.

Another film soon to shoot is family movie Kidnap, the next feature from Diderik Ebbinge, whose 2013 feature Matterhorn was a festival hit last year.

Topkapi was the Dutch coproducer on The Broken Circle Breakdown by director Felix van Groeningen, which is Belgium’s nomination for the Best Foreign-Lanugage Film Oscar.

Topkapi will also coproduce van Groeningen’s next film, Belgica, on which the lead producer is Belgian outfit Menuet.