The dates have been set for the release of the second and third instalments of Scandinavian box-office sensation, The Millennium Trilogy.

Speaking in Cannes, producer Søren Stærmose of Yellow Bird revealed that Nordisk will release the second filmThe Girl Who Played With Fire on 18th September, and will follow it up with The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest on 27th November.

The first film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, has now posted 2.7 million admissions in Scandinavia, racking up €27m in box-office takings.  The film has also opened strongly in France earlier this week, posting over 300,000 admissions already.

The film will be released with a huge promotional push in Italy (through Bim) and in Spain (through Vertigo) in late May. Other European territories are also to follow.

The second and third parts of the trilogy were originally made for television, but Stærmose had always planned to give the films a theatrical release if audiences demanded it.

Here in Cannes, sales outfit Zodiak Entertainment is looking to close further deals.

Yellow Bird’s Ole Søndberg has also confirmed that the company is pushing ahead with three more episodes ofits English-language Wallender series. The new films, adapted from the Henning Mankell novels, will again starKenneth Branagh. The next episodes, which start shooting in Sweden in June, are The Fifth Woman, FacelessKillers and The Man Who Laughed. They are being made in partnership with Andy Harries’ Left Bank Pictures, ARD Degeto, WGBH and the BBC.

Søndberg has not discounted the possibility that Branagh’s Wallender might also spawn a big screen spin off. “Nothing is out of the question,” he added.

Topics