British filmmaker Paul Greengrass has received NOK 17.21 million (USD 2.1 million) in state incentive funding from the Norwegian government. The money is aimed to help finance his upcoming film about events leading up to the bombing and massacre carried out by a young, ultra-right-wing Norwegian on July 22, 2011.
The film, entitled Norway, will be based on the book One of us, by Norwegian author Åsne Seierstad. Greengrass told newspaper Bergens Tidende that the book chronicled what actually happened and how those involved experienced the “gruesome” events.
Greengrass is best known for his Jason Bourne films and also the highly acclaimed account of the hijacking of United Airlines flight 93 on September 11, 2001. He’s also working on Mission Impossible 6, which received around NOK 6 million in funding as an incentive to film some of the sequences in Norway, atop the rock formation known as Preikestolen. That’s due to take place in November with actor Tom Cruise.
The state awarded NOK 57 million in incentive funding this year. It also provided NOK 40 million in funding for the new Snowman film based on Norwegian author Jo Nesbø’s crime novel Snømannen. It opened last week to poor reviews but still drew a total of around 84,000 paying customers to the cinema in Norway last weekend. That ranked as the third-best opening weekend this year, after Beauty and the Beast, which drew 109,000, and Fifty Shades Darker (99,000).
newsinenglish.no staff
