Update: Moviezine reveals that shooting started in late August in Gothenburg and in Stockholm and the project is aiming to hit Swedish theatres in the fall 2012.
Last year, there were few foreign films that matched the buzz of “Snabba Cash.” The film, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2010, came out of the festival with huge buzz and by the time it reached TIFF — where we caught up with it — The Weinstein Company had acquired the U.S. rights, Zac Efron was attached to the inevitable U.S. remake and director Daniel Espinosa and actor Joel Kinnaman were gaining some serious Hollywood attention. Since then, Espinosa landed the director’s chair of the upcoming “Safe House” starring Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington (after taking meetings for other big projects like “X-Men: First Class,” “The Wolverine,” and the Black List script “Prisoners“); Kinnaman has lined up roles in AMC‘s “The Killing,” “The Darkest Hour,” “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and the indie “Lola Versus” and the remake nabbed Noah Oppenheim to write the script.
While the Weinsteins are still sitting on “Snabba Cash” (what’s the hold up guys?) and the remake has gone quiet, a sequel to the original is now on the way. Cineuropa reports that the Swedish Film Institute has laid down a chunk of change to help finance “Snabba Cash II” which will bring back the key cast members Kinnaman, Matias Varela, Dragomir Mrsic and Fares Fares for a brand new tale. Details on the plot are not available, but it will be based on the follow up novels penned by Swedish lawyer-turned-author Jens Lapidus‘: “Never Fuck Up” and a yet to be titled third novel that will wrap up his Stockholm noir trilogy that started with “Snabba Cash.” However, Espinosa won’t be back.
Instead, Babar Najafi will take the director’s seat and while he’s pretty much unknown he does have some cred behind him, winning Best Debut Film at Berlin last year (where we presume he rubbed shoulders with the ‘Snabba’ gang) for feature effort “Sebbe.” In case you’re still playing catch up (and thanks to the Weinsteins keeping “Snabba Cash” on the shelf you likely are), the film is essentially a three-tiered story that eventually comes together in a massive cocaine deal where three disparate lives intersect: a poor economics student dreaming of money and power outside of his class, an escaped convict on the run, and an underworld thug caught in the middle of a gangland power struggle. Our review called the film “a white-knuckling cautionary tale about get-quick greed and status that is wholly absorbing” and it certainly marked Espinosa as a major talent.
No word yet on when “Snabba Cash II” will roll but we’d guess it’ll be before Kinnaman is called back to his duties on “The Killing.” We’re eager to see where the lives from the first film have wound up, and it’s a project we’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for in 2012.