While it became a massive sensation in its native Sweden and helped launch the careers of director Daniel Espinosa (“Safe House“) and star Joel Kinnaman (“RoboCop,” “The Killing“), after all the hype and buzz following its Berlin Film Festival premiere, “Snabba Cash” aka “Easy Money” didn’t quite land the same way stateside. Even with the powers of Harvey Weinstein, who got his old pal Martin Scorsese to lend his name to “Present” the movie, not many folks went to check out the sleek little crime thriller. But overseas, the franchise kept going, spawning two sequels and for those of you curious about the further saga of Johan ‘JW’ Westlund, the good news is those follow-ups are still coming our way.
Cinedigm has snatched up the U.S. rights to “Easy Money: Hard To Kill” and “Easy Money: Life Deluxe,” and will drop both in every format imaginable (including theatrical) in 2014. If you’re still playing catch up, the films are based on a best selling book series, and follows an economics student who falls into the seductive world of drug running. And things don’t go well. But obviously, with two more films, he’s been surviving the game, but we can’t imagine it’s been easy. And while the first film was a pretty energetic piece of moviemaking, will the others stand up?
According to our own Jessica Kiang in her review last year, the second installment is solid but doesn’t quite match the first, though it did leave her looking forward to part three, even if expectations are slightly lowered. And we’ll certainly give it a whirl. No exact dates yet but check out the international trailers for both below. [Deadline]