Pathé Boards Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Blessed Virgin’; TrustNordisk Is ‘Out Stealing Horses’ – Berlin

Blessed Virgin, Paul Verhoeven’s follow-up to Golden Globe winner Elle, has set an August start date with Pathé Films joining to handle international sales and French distribution. The project was originally announced last April and will reteam Verhoeven with Elle‘s Virginie Efira and producer Saïd Ben Saïd and his SBS Productions. Pathé previously handled Verhoeven’s Showgirls and Blackbook. The film is based on the book Immodest Acts: The Life Of A Lesbian Nun In Renaissance Italy. It’s a story that mixes religion with erotica and controversy, right in Verhoeven’s wheelhouse. In the late 15th century, with plague ravaging the land, Benedetta Carlini joins the convent in Pescia, Tuscany as a novice. Capable from an early age of performing miracles, Benedetta’s impact on life in the community is immediate and momentous. Pathé is selling starting in Cannes.

TrustNordisk has acquired world sales on Hans Petter Moland’s upcoming feature Out Stealing Horses. Stellan Skarsgård stars as Trond, a man who lives in newfound solitude and looks forward to spending New Year’s Eve 2000 alone. As winter arrives, he discovers he has a neighbor, a man Trond knew back in 1948, the summer he turned 15 and the summer Trond’s father prepared him to carry the burden of his forthcoming betrayal and disappearance. It was also the summer Trond grew up and smelled the scent of a woman he longed for. The same woman Trond’s father was preparing to spend his life with. Also starring are Bjørn Floberg (Insomnia, Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Anders Baasmo Christiansen (Kon-Tiki, The King’s Choice). Petterson, whose credits include The Beautiful Country, A Somewhat Gentle Man and In Order Of Disappearance, wrote the script based on his own bestselling 2007 novel. Shooting starts this month.