Thriller ‘Operation Napoleon,’ Starring Jack Fox and Iain Glen, Picked Up by Beta Cinema

Munich-based sales agency Beta Cinema has picked up international thriller “Operation Napoleon,” and will kick off presales at the Cannes Film Market.

Shooting wrapped recently at the Langjökull glacier in Iceland, and the production has now moved to MMC Studios in Cologne, Germany.

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The Icelandic-German co-production is based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Iceland’s Arnaldur Indriðason, and features a stellar cast, led by Icelandic newcomer Vivian Ólafsdóttir (“It Hatched”), Jack Fox (Sky’s “Riviera,” “Sanditon,” “Cheaters”) and Scottish actor Iain Glen, best known for his role as Dr. Alexander Isaacs in the “Resident Evil” film series and as Ser Jorah Mormont in “Game of Thrones.”

The sweeping story takes the viewer from modern Iceland to America and Nazi Germany at the end of World War II. It centers on young Icelandic lawyer Kristin, who gets drawn into the vortex of an international conspiracy when she receives grainy footage of an old airplane wreck, recently revealed by the melting of one of Iceland’s largest glaciers.

The old German World War II plane not only brings ruthless criminals onto the scene, but also CIA vice director William Carr, who had already been secretly trying to remove the wreck for a long time. Kristin places herself in great danger, refusing to rest until the key has been discovered that will solve the riddle of “Operation Napoleon.”

Courtesy of Juliette Rowland

The film is directed by Óskar Þór Axelsson, whose feature film debut “Black’s Game” was a breakout hit at the box office, becoming the second-highest grossing Icelandic movie in history, and “I Remember You,” which was the overall no. 1 box office hit of 2017 in Iceland.

Axelsson directs from a script by Marteinn Þórisson (“Silent Witness,” “Jack Taylor”), who adapted from Indriðason’s novel. Indriðason’s “Reykjavík Murder Mystery” series has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 41 languages.

For “Silence of the Grave,” Indriðason was awarded the renowned Gold Dagger, given annually by the Crime Writers’ Association of the U.K. for the best crime novel of the year. He has also been awarded the Nordic Crime Novel Prize for two years running.

The cast is rounded out with Wotan Wilke Möhring (“Valkyrie,” “Sløborn”), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (“True Detective,” “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”), Atli Óskar Fjalarsson, Adesuwa Oni, Anette Badland, Birna Rún Eiríksdóttir, Höskuldur Þór Jónsson, Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir, Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson and Hjörtur Jóhann Jónsson.

The film is produced by Tinna Proppé and Hilmar Sigurðsson of Reykjavík-based Sagafilm, alongside Dirk Schweitzer and Anita Elsani for Splendid Entertainment, Germany.

Co-producing studio partners of Splendid in Germany will be MMC Fiction’s Jens Wolf and Neshe Demir. The production is supported by the Icelandic Film Fund, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and Deutscher Filmförderfonds. German public broadcaster ZDF is co-producing and has secured free TV rights. Sam Film will release theatrically in Iceland, and Splendid Film in Germany.

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