Erik Poppe to direct SF Studios’ new film The Emigrants

The acclaimed Norwegian director Erik Poppe will direct the Swedish feature film The Emigrants, produced by SF Studios with the SF Studios’ owned production company Paradox, Film i Väst and C More/TV4 as co-producers. The Emigrants is based on Vilhem Moberg’s novel series of the same name. The film will start production in 2020. 

The story is about Kristina Nilsson, who together with her family emigrates to America from a poor Sweden during the 1850s. They embark a long and dangerous journey in the hope of creating a better life for their children.

Erik Poppe, one of the founders of Paradox, will the direct The Emigrants with a screenplay by Siv Rajendram Eliassen and Anne Bache-Wiig. Earlier versions of the script have been written by Petter Skavlan, Johan Melin and Anders August. Poppe has previously directed acclaimed films such as The King’s Choice (2016) and Utøya - July 22 (2018). The film is the first co-production between SF Studios and Paradox, which recently was acquired by SF Studios to establish a production business in Norway. 

The film will be produced by Fredrik Wikström Nicastro who has produced successful films such as the Easy Money-trilogy (2008-2013) and Borg/McEnroe (2017).

“Since I first watched Erik Poppe’s film Troubled Water, I have been impressed by his character work and with the film The King’s Choice he mastered to create a great epic film for a broad audience. Erik’s latest film Utøya, that he created together with script writers Siv Rajendram Eliassen and Anne Bache-Wiig, had total presence and reached a global audience. We now very much look forward to create a film about Vilhelm Moberg’s story about Kristina together with them”, says Fredrik Wikström Nicastro, Producer and SVP International Production at SF Studios. ”The film has previously been developed with Daniel Espinosa attached as director, but conflicting schedules did not make it possible to move forward together. The Emigrants is going into production in 2020.”

SF Studios has previously produced the Academy Award-nominated films The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972), directed by Jan Troell with Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow in the leading roles, both adapted from the same novel series by Vilhelm Moberg.

The Emigrants is one of many high-profile projects lined up by SF Studios, including SF Studios’ first international production Horizon Line, the Nordic co-production Margrete Queen of the North and Swedish original series Easy Money for Netflix. 

Nordic distribution and international sales are handled by SF Studios.

For more information, please contact:
Fredrik Wikström Nicastro, SVP International Production, SF Studios, +46 70 413 63 83
Malin Strihagen, Vice President Brand & Communications, SF Studios, +46 (0)70 780 39 35