The film is produced by the production company Yellow Bird (owned by Zodiak Entertainment, part of De Agostini Group) in cooperation with the broadcasters SVT in Sweden and ZDF in Germany, as well as the distributor Nordisk Film. Apart from the feature film, Yellow Bird has produced a 6 x 90 TV miniseries based on the entire Millennium trilogy.
Men Who Hate Women stars one of Sweden's best known and loved actors Michael Nyqvist (As it is in Heaven), in the lead role as the disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Noomi Rapace (Daisy Diamond) plays the young tattooed and ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. The film is directed by Niels Arden Oplev who has directed a number of television series and films including World's apart and We shall overcome.
Apart from Denmark and Sweden, Men Who Hate Women will also be on general release on Finnish and Norwegian cinemas from March 2009 and will appear on French and Italian cinema screens in Spring/Summer 2009.
The success of the Millennium trilogy written by Stieg Larsson, who died suddenly in 2004 at the age of 50, is demonstrated by huge international book sales. Named the best selling book in the European Union in 2008, with overwhelming popularity in Sweden, France, Germany and Italy, worldwide sales of his titles currently stand at 10 million copies. In Italy, the third book in the trilogy is currently number one in the bestseller charts.
Lorenzo Pellicioli at Zodiak Entertainment comments, "We are very excited that the premiere of this exciting Stieg Larsson adaptation will take place in Scandinavia. Larsson has an enormous following throughout the world and we are certain that this film will be one of the major cinema success stories this year. We are also looking forward to launching the television miniseries which will have huge appeal for international broadcasters."
For further information contact:
Klara Halkjaer, Zodiak Entertainment Sas
Tel +44 781 804 8802 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Debbie Lawrence, The Lippin Company Ltd
Tel: +44 203 008 5406 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Yellow Bird was founded in 2003 and is today one of the largest Scandinavian drama production companies. It has also recently entered the German market, by starting a subsidiary in Munich.
The company's main focus is large international scripted co-productions, be it films for TV and cinema, or drama series. Typically, the productions are based on internationally successful books or characters from such books.
Yellow Bird is currently producing six TV films and one feature film based on Stieg Larsson's critically acclaimed Millennium trilogy, as well as 13 new Swedish movies about Henning Mankell's criminal inspector Wallander. The company has also recently finished the production of three English Wallander movies starring Kenneth Branagh, which were broadcasted on BBC 1 in November/December 2008.
Previous productions include the first Swedish series of 13 movies about Wallander as well as six TV movies about criminal inspector Irene Huss, based on the books by Helene Tursten.
Yellow Bird is part of Zodiak Entertainment.
Zodiak Entertainment coordinates all De Agostini's activities in the production and distribution of content for television and new media. Formed by more than twenty successful international companies, the majority of which European; in 2008 its revenue totalled more than €400 million.
A leader in the media industry, Zodiak Entertainment has a number of subsidiaries:
- Magnolia, a leading Italian independent producer of light entertainment. Magnolia successfully launched operations in Spain during 2005.
- Marathon Group, a leading TV production company in France, with its subsidiaries Marathon, Marathon Media, Tele Image, KM, and ALP (Adventure Line Productions). Marathon Group owns a broad portfolio of scripted programs, as well as animation and documentaries.
- Zodiak Television, based in Sweden, owns several production companies operating in Northern Europe, the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and in Eastern Europe. Some of the most renowned include: Yellow Bird, Mastiff, Diverse Productions, Bullseye, Lucky Day, Kanakna. Palm Plus
De Agostini Group is a financial conglomerate with international interests in publishing, gaming, finance and media and communication. A privately owned company created in 1901 by the De Agostini family, the Group is now operating on a global scale in a wide variety of industrial sectors with a large portfolio of financial investments.
De Agostini Publishing, the sub-holding of the Group's publishing activity, is active across 30 countries with publications available in 13 different languages.
De Agostini Communications specialises in three different Media & Communication sectors: content production, spearheaded by the launch of Zodiak Entertainment which comprises some of the most successful companies in the industry, including Magnolia, Marathon and Zodiak Television; broadcasting via Antena 3 de Televisión (Spain); and distribution by Mikado Film (Italy).
De Agostini also counts Lottomatica / Gtech, one of the leaders in the international market of games and lotteries, and DeA Capital, investors in private equity and alternative asset management, amongst its extended portfolio.
