Ben Hamilton
February 14th, 2017

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Riley Keough (the ever-so slightly deranged main character in ‘The Girlfriend Experience’) and Sofie Gråbøl have been cast in the film (photo: Søren Kirkegaard and 42 West)

Lars von Trier clearly has nothing against Scandinavian actors. After all, he’s cast Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård in six of his films. But when it comes to his fellow Danes, the great director has something of an aversity.

Mads Mikkelsen has never had the privilege, and neither has his brother Lars or Trine Dyrholm. And she’s worked with everyone!

In fact, this century, we can only count three: Connie Nielsen (‘Gladiator’) and Nicolas Bro had minor roles in ‘Nymphomaniac’ and Bond villain Jesper Christensen in ‘Melancholia’.

Not a killing without Sarah
Anyhow, from today you can make that four, as the country’s most prolific cardigan saleswoman, Sofie Gråbøl (Sarah Lund in ‘Forbrydelsen’), has been cast in ‘The House That Jack Built’.

Shooting of the long-awaited film, which charts the exploits of a serial killer (played by Matt Dillon) over a 12-year period, starts in Copenhagen in May.

It is the first film that von Trier has chosen to partially shoot in his home country (filming is also planned in Trollhättan, Sweden) since ‘Dancer In The Dark’ in 2000. The Copenhagen Film Fund has contributed 8 million kroner in funding to the Zentropa-produced film.

An expat offing Danes?
The only other confirmed names are Bruno Ganz and Riley Keough, and given that a serial killer inherently demands a bodycount, we can be confident the cast will grow in the near future.

Who knows, maybe casting one of his fellow Danes as the victim of a serial killer would be a dream come true for Von Trier.

And it makes you wonder, given that it’s set in Copenhagen and the killer is American, if this film is going to be about an expat offing Danes?

The film is scheduled for release in 2018 and has already been sold to over 20 territories.