18. April 2007

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Production on Danish WWII thriller Flame & Citron is scheduled to wrap Saturday in Prague before moving on to Germany and Denmark, producer Lars Bredo Rahbek told ScreenDaily.com. Director Ole Christian Madsen (En Kærlighedshistorie) started filming March 19 in Prague, using a retro-fitted warehouse as a studio. Other studio spaces in the Czech capital are occupied by crews working on Disney/Walden's The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Universal's Wanted. Rahbek said the production needed to recreate historical scenes from 1944 Copenhagen and that the present-day city was too modern. "We scouted around Central Europe," he told ScreenDaily.com. "We looked at Riga, which bears an uncanny resemblance to Copenhagen in terms of architecture, but it didn't have what we needed in terms of infrastructure." Rahbek said a key decision behind the Prague shoot was the positive experience Nimbus Film Productions had shooting Madsen's film Prague in the Czech capital. Local production service company Sirena Film worked with Madsen on that project and serves as co-producer on Flame & Citron. The producers also achieved considerable savings by shooting in Prague. "For us as Danish producers it's an extremely expensive production," Rahbek said. "I think it's the biggest budget Danish film to date." Rahbek put the budget for the film at $8.6m (Euros 6.3m). From Prague the production moves to Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam and then to Copenhagen, where it is scheduled to wrap June 13. Rahbek (A Soap) and Morten Kaufmann (Prague) serve as producers on the project. Wueste Filmproduktion is the German partner. Financing also comes from Nimbus Film Rights, the Danish Film Institute, TV2 Danmark, MBB Berlin Brandenburg, the Nordic Film & TV Fund and Eurimages, among others. "Financing is enormously complex," Rahbek said, adding that 28 parties contributed to the project. The film is based on a true story and stars Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) and Thure Linhardt as Resistance fighters who carried out assassinations during the German occupation of Denmark. FilmFolket A/S will distribute the film in Denmark, where it is scheduled to premiere in early 2008. The Match Factory is handling international sales. Rahbek hopes the historical aspects of the film will draw Danish audiences while the action story will appeal to international audiences. "It's a very taut thriller, but it's structured to have a very broad appeal," he said.