Mads Mikkelsen epic The Bastard shooting in multiple locations

Gustav Lindh (Queen Of Hearts) and Simon Bennebjerg (Borgen) have joined the previously announced  Mads Mikkelsen and Amanda Collin in the cast for Nikolaj Arcel’s new film The Bastard.

In Cannes, the film was announced with the working title of King’s Land. 

Other new cast are Kristine Kujath Thorp (Sick Of Myself), Magnus Krepper (Queen Of Hearts), Morten Hee Andersen (Ride Upon The Storm), Jakob Lohmann (Riders Of Justice) and Felix Kramer (Dark).

The film is now shooting in Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic and production company Zentropa has released the first image of the shoot (pictured).

The story is set in the mid-1700s when Danish King Frederik V declared that the wild heath of Jutland should be tamed, cultivated, and colonized so that civilization could spread and new taxes be generated for the royal house. But nobody dared go to this brutal land until a lone soldier named Ludvig Kahlen stepped up.

The film has a budget of €8m, which Zentropa says is one of its biggest feature film budgets in years.

TrustNordisk has pre-sold to the US (Magnolia), Germany (Plaion), France (The Jokers), Benelux (September) and Hungary (Vertigo).

Arcel writes the script alongside Anders Thomas Jensen (Riders Of Justice) based on the 2020 book The Captain And Ann Barbara.

Louise Vesth produces for Zentropa, in co-production with Zentropa Berlin and Zentropa Sweden in cooperation with TV2 Denmark, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, SVT and PLAION PICTURES in co-production with Film i Väst with support from Danish Film Institute, Eurimages, Den Vestdanske Filmpulje, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Czech Film Fund and Swedish Film Institute.

Nordisk handles the Nordic distribution, slated for autumn 2023.

The project marks Arcel’s first Danish film for nearly a decade. He reunites with Mikkelsen after their collaboration on 2012’s Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair.

This article originally appeared on KFTV's sister site, Screendaily.