Greed, ambition, good intentions gone wrong, family, paranoia and betrayal. These are some of the captions that could be used to describe “Snabba Cash” the arresting and buzzed-about Swedish crime drama that has caught Hollywood’s attention like a hot blonde who walks into a room and makes it go silent with oohs and ahhs (and yes, there’s already a U.S. remake in the works with Zac Efron in the lead).
Not released in the U.S. yet, the film was a hit in its native Sweden, and was quietly acquired by the Weinstein Company earlier this year for what we’re told is a TBD 2010 release date. Titled, “Easy Money” for the U.S. (the Swedish translation we assume) and also unbeknownst to almost everyone we know, it’s also playing the Toronto Intl. Film Festival (most people don’t realize this because no one realizes the film is now going under the new title; btw, good luck with buying TIFF tickets today…).
So back to the buzz. Only Hollywood studio folks and insiders have seen the film (well, and us…), but the gripping and electric picture has put its director Daniel Espinosa on the Hollywood map with a bulls eye. Espinosa scored the coveted gig to direct “Safe House” with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds (a picture that every male lead in Hollywood wanted). So impressed was Hollywood with “Snabba Cash,” the film landed him in the pool of directors considered for “X-Men: First Class,” “Wolverine 2,” and Espinosa’s name has also come up in connection with Aaron Guzikowski’s heavily-buzzed script “Prisoners” with Leonardo DiCaprio attached (though Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, and Mark Wahlberg were interested at one point, it was that hot) as well as the Steven Soderbergh-produced “Making Jack Falcone” which has Benicio Del Toro attached to star. If this isn’t enough proof that “Snabba Cash” turned heads and made Tinstletown notice, we don’t know what is.
A three-pronged interwoven narrative starring Swedish actors Joel Kinnaman, (the buzz has done wonders for him too; he’s starring in “The Darkest Hour” with Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby) Matias Padin and Dragomir Mrsic, the taut and engaging “Snabba Cash” marks the fateful intersecting point of three men wanting more and looking to get out; a struggling economics student who dreams of wealth, an escaped convict on the run and a Serbian thug tasked with rubbing out the jailbird. It all builds to an intense confluence of drug deals, bullets and betrayals and it’s simply a solid grade A film that you should watch when it finally hits U.S. shores later this year.
So if you’re like us, you’ve been intensely curious about this picture all year. So for those that haven’t seen it, which we’re guessing is a majority of you, here’s your first look at several pictures of the film, plus the Swedish-language trailer which is below the jump. This is a picture to keep an eye on as well as its director has clearly been noticed and is moving on to bigger and better things. You’ve been warned.
