White-hot Danish production outfit Zentropa will co-produce English-language western The Jenny Wagon with the UK's Zenith Productions. The film will be shot in Trollhattan, Sweden, one of the locations used for Zentropa's Palme d'Or winner Dancer In The Dark.
"We learnt so much about imitating the US in Sweden when we were shooting Dancer, that we thought we might as well return to the same area to shoot a western," Zentropa producer Carsten Holst told Screen.
Holst describes the project, written by John Peacock, as a drama in the style of Swede Jan Troell's acclaimed adaptations, The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972), which starred Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow. The dark tale revolves around a group of European and Scandinavian emigrants, and their encounter with the reality of the promised land.
The film will be shot both around Trollhattan and in Film I Vast's studios north of Gothenburg, which also housed Dancer In The Dark. Film I Vast - a regional public funding body - is likely to board the project as co-producer, as it does on most other features shot in the region. The producers plan to start production at the end of the year, when winter has reached the Swedish locations.
The cast of Jenny Wagon is likely to include a mix of international and Scandinavian actors. A director has yet to be attached.
Film I Vast has recently secured a 50% increase in funding from $4m (SEK37m) to $6m (SEK57m) in return for which it has to guarantee a 30% increase in production in the region. The organisation is backed by regional development and cultural committees, the Swedish Film Institute and the European Union. The studio is also set to house Bille August's romantic drama A Song For Martin.
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