Anthony Hopkins to topline “Kidnapping Freddy Heineken” thriller

PanARMENIAN.Net - Anthony Hopkins will play Dutch businessman Alfred "Freddy" Heineken in the new thriller Kidnapping Freddy Heineken. The grandson of the founder of the Heineken brewery and his driver were kidnapped in 1983 and released only after a ransom of 35 million Dutch guilders was paid, the largest ransom ever paid at the time, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten, Dutch actor Mark van Eeuwen and Australian newcomer Tom Cocquerel round out the cast.

Daniel Alfredson -- who directed the original 2009 Swedish film version of The Girl Who Played With Fire and its sequel, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest -- will direct from a screenplay by William Brookfield based on a book about the case by Peter R. de Vries.

The film, which begins principal photography in late October in Belgium and then moves to Amsterdam and New Orleans, is being produced by Informant Media partners Judy Cairo and Michael A. Simpson and by Howard Meltzer under the Informant Europe banner. Informant partner Eric Brenner is executive producer.

Additional executive producers include Darrel Casalino, Sam Solakyan, Grant Guthrie and Sandra Siegal. John Papsidera is a co-producer, along with Guirec van Slingelandt, who is co-producing for Netherlands-based European Film Company. Coproducing in Belgium is uFilm.

Financing is being provided by Informant Media, Global Film Partners, Three Point Capital, uFilm and the National Bank of Canada.

Embankment Films is handling international presales and distribution.