We’re still waiting for Swedish-raised filmmaker Daniel Espinosa to make good on the promise of his 2010 thriller "Snabba Cash" (aka "Easy Money"). The movie launched the international career of Joel Kinnaman (2013’s “RoboCop”) and made Espinosa a much in-demand filmmaker for Hollywood studios —after juggling several offers, he directed “Safe,” starring Denzel Washington. But will Espinosa become of those acclaimed foreign filmmakers who devolve into the anonymous Hollywood hackwork (like, ahem, Baltasar Kormákur)? Maybe Espinosa will fare a little bit better with his upcoming film “Child 44.”
Based on the first novel in author Tom Rob Smith’s trilogy featuring disgraced MGB Agent Leo Demidov investigating a series of gruesome child murders in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, the movie stars Tom Hardy as Demidov and co-stars Noomi Rapace, Kinnaman, Gary Oldman and Vincent Cassel. Here’s the official synopsis:
When this film first announced, many thought the combination of Oldman, Hardy and Rapace was Oscar-bait, but still others thought the same thing of the permutation of Hardy, Rapace, James Gandolfini and Matthias Schoenaerts in “The Drop” and look where that got ‘em? Sometimes a thriller is just a good thriller. “Child 44” opens in theaters on April 17. Watch the trailer below (and a quick interview with Rapace about the film as well).
