26/04/2023 - Anders W Berthelsen plays a journalist who, after a round of lay-offs and a long period on social welfare, ends up in an internship at his former workplace

l-r: Mathilde Arcel Fock, Sofie Nolsøe, Patrick A Hansen, Mikkel Serup, Lene Maria Christensen, Anders W Berthelsen and Nicolas Bro (© Per Arnesen)

A sequel to the popular 2004 Danish film King’s Game is now in the works. SF Studios has announced that the new political thriller, titled Kingmaker and directed by Mikkel Serup, has entered production.

The Århus-born helmer has previously directed series such as Livvagterne (2009-2010), Pros and Cons (2018-2020) and The Chestnut Man (2021), as well as features like The Reunion 2 – The Funeral [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2014) and Pound for Pound [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2017). King’s Game was a local box-office smash, attracting over 550,000 viewers to Danish theatres.

The sequel stars Anders W Berthelsen (Erna at War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Henrik Ruben Genz
film profile]) in the lead role as journalist Ulrik Torp, together with Nicolas Bro (The Kingdom Exodus [+see also:
series review
trailer
interview: Asta Kamma August
interview: Hubert Toint and Mark Denes…
series profile], Riders of Justice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anders Thomas Jensen
film profile]) and Charlotte Munck (Kamikaze), returning as their original characters.

After a round of lay-offs and a long period on social welfare, Torp ends up in an internship at his former workplace, Dagbladet, where his old colleague and now editor-in-chief, Henrik Moll, asks him to cover the murder of a young clerk at the Ministry of the Interior. Together with young interns Emma and Simon, Torp follows the trail of a small circle of former politicians and top officials who are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that power stays in the right hands. Once again, we are drawn into a political conspiracy with Torp, this time with the very foundations of our society at stake.

Appearing alongside Berthelsen, Bro and Munck are Patrick A Hansen, Sofie Nolsøe, Mathilde Arcel Fock, Simon Kongsted, Mathilde Eusebius, Ellaha Lack, Mohamed Djeziri, Sara Fanta, Lene Maria Christensen (starring as politician Anne-Grethe Hulsig), Tommy Kenter (portraying businessman Otto Brathenberg) and Ina-Miriam Rosenbaum (playing the editor Best Bente).

The script has been penned by Marie Østerbye. It is a film adaptation of Niels Krause-Kjær’s second novel, Mørkeland, about journalist Ulrik Torp. “But Kingmaker is only a sequel for those who want to see it that way. As a story, it stands alone as a topical and gripping political thriller about the state of democracy,” states SF Studios’ official press release.

“Much has changed since King’s Game was released in 2004. The media, the political scene and, of course, the audience have all evolved dramatically, and we must all navigate clickbait and the echo chambers of social media. Kingmaker is a new story about Ulrik Torp, set an entire generation after we left him as a young investigative journalist with his life and career ahead of him. Twenty years have passed since then, Torp is now middle-aged, and his career has been replaced by unemployment and a midlife crisis. From that perspective, he finds himself in the middle of a new political conspiracy, which raises the question of whether we can accept the manipulation of democracy when the manipulation is intended to save it,” said Serup.

Kingmaker is being produced by Denmark’s Meta Film in co-production with Meta Film Stockholm and Film i Väst, in collaboration with SF Studios, TV2, SVT and YLE, and with support from the Danish Film Institute and the Swedish Film Institute. SF Studios is also set to distribute the film in the Nordic countries, with REinvent in charge of its international sales.

“It’s such a joy to be able to bring the universe of this Danish political thriller back to the Danish audience together with Meta Film and their super-talented creatives,” commented Yaba Holst, head of Nordic Acquisition at SF Studios.