International Sales AB Svensk Filmindustri SE-169 86 Stockholm, Sweden Phone: +46 8 680 35 00 Fax: + 46 8 710 44 60 [email protected] www.sfinternational.se You will hear only the sound of my voice You will hear only the numbers counting down Calm now, there’s no reason to be afraid No reason to be afraid No reason to be afraid There’s a reason to be afraid In the middle of a dark December night, psychiatrist Erik Maria Bark is woken by a telephone call from a Synopsis hospital in Stockholm. Detective Inspector Joona Linna asks for his immediate help in treating an unconscious patient suffering from acute trauma. He hopes that Erik will be able to communicate with the young boy through hypnosis, enabling the police to question him. They hope to find out who so brutally murdered his parents and younger sister, in order to track down and save his older sister before it is too late. But it has been ten years since Erik last practised hypnosis, and he has promised never to do it again. Painful memories from that time make their presence felt, contributing to his decision not to help the police. When Erik finally allows himself to be persuaded, it is as if the floodgates have been opened to a torrent of unforeseen happenings. Without warning, this violent and inexplicable course of events impacts with full force on Erik’s life. His son disappears, and to have a chance of saving his life, Erik has to confront himself with the past, with the times when his research-work was laid in ruins and his marriage seemed on the verge of collapsing. Director’s The Hypnotist is a character-driven thriller that really attracted my interest. I have always been wanting to try my hand at the thriller genre, but not Statement many opportunities to do that have opened up for me in the US. It is not what people expect from me, so I was never really considered for them. Mattias Edwall Though I may have focused on gentler fare in the past, I will not shy away from the violent aspects of this story. I want to tell it in a real and honest way, and as always I want to see to it that the characters come alive-performances are always important to me. Having spent my first 40 years in Stockholm, I know it quite well and hope to make it a moody backdrop to the story, trying to pay attention to detail and the LASSE HALLSTRÖM atmosphere of a Stockholm winter. I have always been interested in stories that are genre crossovers. After decades of international successes with films such as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, Something The drama comedy is a genre mix that I have felt very to Talk About, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, comfortable with, and hopefully adding the thriller An Unfinished Life, Casanova, The Hoax, Dear element won't feel foreign to me. I am looking John and Oscar-nominated My Life as a Dog, Lasse Hallström will direct his first Swedish feature film forward to returning to work in my home country, in 25 years, The Hypnotist. for the first time in 25 years! Based on International best-seller The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler Production Facts Director Lasse Hallström Genre Thriller Country of Origin Sweden The Hypnotist Production Year 2011/2012 First Release September 28, 2012 Duration TBA International Sales AB Svensk Filmindustri Cast Mikael Persbrandt, Tobias Zilliacus, Lena Olin, Jonatan Bökman, Oscar Pettersson, Helena af Sandeberg, Anna Ascarate, Eva Melander. Production Company AB Svensk Filmindustri & Sonet Film AB Producers Börje Hansson, Peter Possne & Bertil Ohlsson Script Paolo Vacirca & Peter Asmussen D.O.P Mattias Montero Editor Tomas Täng & Sebastian Amundsen Production Designer Lasse Westfelt Costume Designer Karin Sundvall Make-up Designer Jenny Fred Sound Designer Aleksander Karshikoff Composer Oscar Fogelström Stills Photographer Fredrik Hjerling & Alexandra Aristarhova Cast MIKAEL PERSBRANDT TOBIAS ZILLIACUS LENA OLIN The Hypnotist Dr. Erik Maria Bark Detective Inspector Joona Linna Simone, Wife of the Hypnotist (The Hobbit, In a Better World) (Upswing, Beyond Enemy Lines) (Remember Me, Chocolat) Persbrandt is one of Sweden’s greatest Tobias Zilliacus trained at the Theatre Lena Olin trained at the Stockholm actors of all time. He has worked at Academy Helsinki 1991-1995. After Academy of Dramatic Arts 1976-79. the Royal Dramatic Theatre in graduating from the academy, he During the 1980s, she joined the Royal Stockholm, and has appeared in began working at the Viirus Theatre Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm where countless film and TV roles. In in Helsinki where he appeared in she took part in many productions January 2009, he won a Guldbagge some 20 productions and also directed by Ingmar Bergman. Her Award for best leading actor in Jan directed for the stage. Zilliacus’s feature film breakthrough came with a Troell’s Everlasting Moments, and in feature film debut was in Upswing specially written lead role in Ingmar 2011 played the lead role in Susanne (2002), after which he played the lead Bergman’s TV film After The Bier’s film In A Better World, which role in the war drama Beyond Enemy Rehearsal (1984). The role led to her went on to win an Oscar for best Lines (2004). In 2009, Tobias starred landing the part of Sabina in The foreign film. He also plays the lead as the mortally ill gardener Visa Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), role in the upcoming trilogy about Vuorio in the film One Foot Under, which became her international Agent Carl Hamilton based on the and most recently he played the male breakthrough as an actress. Lena Olin novels by Jan Guillou, as well as the lead in the children’s film Iris (2011). enjoyed a further breakthrough in role of Beorn in Peter Jackson's Tobias will be playing Joona Linna in 2002, when she landed the role as Irina The Hobbit. all eight upcoming thrillers based on Derevko in the American spy series the books by Lars Kepler. Alias. The role won her an Emmy nomination for best female supporting actress in 2003. LOCATIONS The Hypnotist was shot in different locations in Stockholm as well as in the north of Sweden. The first Behind the winter footage was shot in December to capture the city’s Christmas atmosphere, whereas the final scenes, shot at Production the end of an unusually sunny and spring-like March, had to be covered in fake snow to keep their winter mood. The scenes at the cabin where Benjamin is taken by Lydia were shot during a week in Städdejaur, as well as a week at the Kronan Studio in Luleå in the north of Sweden. The end scenes with the old bus going through the ice proved a tough challenge, and were eventually shot at the Barrandov Studio in Prague in collaboration with SFX company Flash Barrandov Special Effects Ltd. The shooting took place in mid-April and completed 58 days of filming. CAMERA TECHNIQUE Camera: Alexa ST. 4:3 censor Vantage Anamorphic lens 2.0 Recording Format: ARRI RAW – 2880 x 1556 pixels 24 fps Format: 1:2,35 Cinemascope The Kepler The Hypnotist is the first one out in the planned series of eight films and principal shooting took off in January 2012, with a Swedish theatrical release planned for September 28, Film Series 2012. The Paganini Contract is planned for a 2013 release and the work on the script has already begun. The Hypnotist Produced by: AB Svensk Filmindustri and Sonet Film AB Producers: Börje Hansson, Peter Possne and Bertil Ohlsson The Paganini Contract Produced by: AB Svensk Filmindustri and Sonet Film AB Producers: Börje Hansson and Peter Possne Börje Hansson and Peter Possne have been involved in most of the Swedish box-office hits over the last 20 years like the Oscar-nominated As It Is in Heaven and the 2011 Swedish Oscar entry, Simple Simon. Bertil Ohlsson was executive producer for the International successes Amadeus and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and he also produced Lasse Hallström’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? Who is Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril, both established writers with several books published, teamed up professionally for the first time to write The Hypnotist. Lars Kepler? The pseudonym Lars Kepler allowed them to separate their earlier, independent work, from this new common authorship. As they wanted to be judged without prejudice, they decided to submit the manuscript to the publisher anonymously. Five days later the publisher, Albert Bonniers, knew they had a nail-biting best-seller in the vein of Stieg Larsson's novels. Still the Ahndorils did not want to reveal their true identity. With successful separate careers, and a well Anna-Lena Ahlström Anna-Lena functioning life together with their three children, they felt no need to come clean. As expected, the media launched a huge investigation, and it did not take long before one of Sweden's largest tabloids paid them a visit at their summer house, urging them to confess that they Our intention was always to remain had written one of the most widely read European a secret. Not even our own children books of 2010. knew that we were Lars Kepler. Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril One month after the authors submitted the manuscript to the publisher, The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler, was at the centre of heated auctions at the The Kepler London international book fair, involving some of the world's leading crime publishers. The novel was sold to Crime Novels 25 countries within just a few weeks of the fair, and has now been translated into 36 languages, published in over 40 countries altogether.