"The Deep" Oscar hopeful Baltasar Kormakur will produce "Rocketman," fellow Icelandic director Dagur Kari's next film, under Kormakur's Blueeyes Production banner.
“Rocketman” is Kari’s first Icelandic movie since 2003’s “Noi the Albino,” his first feature-length film. He has since made the Danish-language “Dark Horse,” which screened at Cannes in 2005, and the English-language “The Good Heart,” starring Brian Cox and Paul Dano.
The new project, a co-production with Denmark’s Nimbus Film, will begin production in February. An intense character study of a man in his 40s still rooted in childhood, it unites Kari with Kormakur, one of Iceland's most accomplished directors.
The small nation has thus far left a similarly small imprint on the international film landscape, having earned just one Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language film. Kormakur aims to change that this year with “The Deep,” his tale of a sunk fishing ship and its lone survivor.
It was selected to the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign language Film.
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Though Kormakur has branched off into mainstream American cinema, making 2012's “Contraband” with Mark Wahlberg and re-teaming with the actor for “2 Guns,” which opens this August, Kormakur established Blueeyes to sustain a steady stream of new film and television projects from his homeland.
He founded the company in 1999 with his wife, Lilja Pálmadóttir, and has since partnered with Dadi Einarsson and visual-effects company Framestore.
Agnes Johansen, Kormakur’s Blueeyes colleague, also will produce "Rocketman."
“We are very excited to kick off a new project with Dagur," Johansen said in a statement. "We think he’s a great talent who has already developed his own special style."
Blueeyes' slate of projects in development includes “Silence of the Grave,” based on the 2006 crime novel, and "Mules," an upcoming film from first-time director Borkur Sigthorsson.