Entertainment One Buys U.K. Rights to Icelandic Thriller 'Black's Game'

COLOGNE, Germany - Entertainment One has picked up U.K. rights to the Icelandic crime thriller Black's Game from Danish sales group TrustNordisk. The drama, currently in post-production, tracks the transformation of the quiet Reykjavik drug scene, which in the 1990s became increasingly organized and violent.

Directed by first-timer Oskar Thor Axelsson, Black's Game is executive produced by Denmark's Nicolas Winding Refn, whose 1996 debut, Pusher, looked at the drug underworld in Denmark. Refn's latest, the action drama Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, won the best director honor at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Refn is currently in pre-production on his Bangkok-set thriller Only God Forgives, which features Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas and Thai actress and pop star Yayaying.

Black's Game is the latest in a wave of Scandinavian crime dramas that have hit the market since the success of the Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy, including The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. TrustNordisk, which will be pre-selling Black's Game at the Toronto Film Festival this week, has had success with such Nordic crime thrillers as Daniel Espinosa's Easy Money and Headhunters from Norwegian director Morten Tyldum.