On Wednesday evening I, along with many other London film fans, had the pleasure of attending The Jameson Cult Film Club’s pre-screening of Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters at London’s fabulous Saatchi Gallery.
This film is based around the charming Roger Brown (Askel Hennie) who leads a double life, unbeknown to his beautiful wife Diana (Synnove Lund), as both a successful head-hunter and an accomplished art thief by night. This thrilling film was surprisingly gripping as Roger is thrown in to a dangerous life on the run after being involved in his riskiest heist so far.
The Jameson Cult Film Club aims to host their screenings at locations which truly transport the guests into the genre of the film so with fine art pieces taking a central role in Headhunters, the Saatchi Gallery proved to be a very fitting venue. Having the chance to admire the selection of art on show before the screening, some of which featured in the film itself was fabulous and we were treated to delicious Jameson cocktails throughout the evening.
Proceeding the film, primary cast members Askel Hennie, Synnove Lund along with Producer Marianne Gray took to the stage to answer questions from the audience.
Q. This film has a unique tone to it and has some incredible scenes, namely you shaving your head with a razor and then of course the scene everyone will be talking about, you crawling into a river of s***. Is that the scene that stood out for you when you read the script?
Askel: No not at all, I’m used to things like that, there is usually one in every film it just a matter of deciding where to put it! When the book came out, this is definitely the scene that everyone talked about. The mixture used is actually made out of granola, chocolate, olive oil, bread crumbs and other chocolate things.
Q: How did you feel about shaving your head?
Askel: I look terrible when I grow my hair out, a lot on the sides and little on top, so I was really looking forward to shaving it off. What I didn’t know was that I had to do it on screen with a blunt razor. Actually on screen you can see me shaving off a mole, cheapest surgery I’ve ever had but it worked! I love being able to do my own stunts and scenes like that create energy.
Q. How did this film come to be because this is the first film based on a Jo Nesbo’s novels and he’s been quite protective of his books hasn’t he?
Marianne: Yes, he was very reluctant while he was continuing to write the other books because he didn’t want a movie character in his head. So when this book came out as a stand alone he agreed to it being filmed so it was an easy process.
Q. I have just found this out that Synnove is a film critic in Norway and this is her first movie. How did this come about for you and how surreal is it to be on the other side of the camera for once?
Synnove: I had reviewed some of Askel’s films previously and that’s how we met. We weren’t friends but he knew about me.
Askel: Yes, I was afraid of you! We had practically tried out all of the actresses in Norway and just couldn’t find the right one! When I read the script I pictured Synnove because I knew of her so we tried her. She came more prepared than any other actress and was so on it from the start. Despite having not done anything before she was so professional.
Q: How are you going to feel when the film is eventually remade as I’m sure it will?
Askel: It will be remade. We make this film for the audience so having as many people see it as possible is a good thing. For us, showing it in England is fantastic but believe it or not there are people that don’t understand Norwegian and there are also people that don’t like subtitles.
Q. Marianne can you tell us a little more about the remake, whose attached as we’ve heard Mark Wahlberg is certainly in it?
Marianne: No he actually did a great job promoting this film for us because he ended up loving it. We may partner with him but it’s in a very early stage. We are only just writing the script and then we’ll see.
Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters will be on general release from 6th April 2012.
