The film is inspired by “The Host,” one of six short stories in French-Algerian philosopher Albert Camus’ book, “Exile and the Kingdom.”

Mortensen stars as a French teacher in a small Algerian village in 1957 during Algeria’s war of independence from France. He is ordered to take a dissident to the authorities to turn him in but the two men unexpectedly bond.

The ¤6 million ($7.7 million) “Kingdom” is produced by Marc du Pontavice and Matthew Gledhill at Paris-based One World Films. “Viggo is a big fan of Albert Camus’ work and committed to star in the film very quickly after he read the script,” du Pontavice said. [Source]

The star played Aragorn in the Rings trilogy and has told Total Film he would jump at the chance to reprise the role.

He said: “Would I play Aragorn again? Sure, if it seemed sensible to do so.

“He’s not in the book of The Hobbit, but if they’re working with the appendices they may be intending to bridge the 60-year Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings gap.

“I think I would have heard by now so I have to assume… But Peter Jackson is famous for his reshoots, so you never know!” [Source]

This year’s lineup will feature 117 feature films and 12 shorts from a total of 41 countries. Notable mentions include Venus and Serena, a documentary on the superstar siblings; River Phoenix’s last flick, Dark Blood; and Viggo Mortensen flaunting flawless Spanish in Everybody Has a Plan.

See also:
Lee Brian Schrager’s Culinary Cinema To Debut At Miami International Film Festival
River Phoenix’s Last Film to Make U.S. Debut at Miami International Film Festival

This morning’s press conference opened with a clip from MIFF, circa 1987. Spotted were Candice Bergen and late hubby director Louis Malle; Jeff Goldblum and Wallace Shawn; plus scores of shoulder pads and sequins.

MIFF Executive Director Jaie LaPlante then took the stage to announce the extensive lineup of screenings and swank events. The festival will open on Friday, March 1 with the feel-good feature, Twenty Feet From Stardom, which follows women like Darleen Love and Judith Hill who’ve toiled for years as back-up singers to the likes of Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones. Afterwards, a gala will be held at the Dupont Building in downtown. Saturday will open the competition categories, including the screening of Mortensen in Everybody Has a Plan.

In addition, the festival will pay special tribute to directors Fernando Trueba and Lasse Hallstrom. There’ll be the signature CINEDWNTWN gala series at the Olympia Theater, including the world premiere of Miami-based feature film Eenie Meenie Miney Moe from Jokes Yanes. Festival competition categories will include the Knight Ibero-American Competition, where 10 dramatic works including Everybody Has a Plan by Ana Piterbarg and Cinco De Mayo: The Battle by Rafa Lara will compete for $40,000 in prizes; the Knight Documentary Competition; the Lexus Ibero-American Opera Prime Competition and the University of Miami Shorts Competition.

New this year is Lee Brian Schrager’s Culinary Cinema series; a Spotlight on China series; and two specialty series screening exclusively at O Cinema: Mayhem, a collection of cult films including Animals by Marcal Fores; and Visions, featuring experimental, cutting edge works including Bob Wilson’s Life and Death of Marina Abramovic by Glada Colagrande.

Festivities will wrap up at the Awards Night gala on March 9 with the screeningVenus and Serenaand a gala party at MDC’s Freedom Tower.

Special surprise guest Ruth Shack, former President of the Dade Community Foundation (now known as The Miami Foundation) and Miami legend, spoke to press about the early days of MIFF.

“The audacity of the idea blew us all away. If you’ve been here for any length of time, you’ve been here for the beginning of almost anything that happened in Miami. Our modern history is so short,” Shack said.

“This was one of the most audacious, most visionary, most exciting concepts to come along. Were I to say there was skepticism that it would last, I would have others who would agree with me, but the sheer joy of having made it 30 years later is rather remarkable.”

And how have things changed in the past 30 years? “I can guarantee that every 10 years there is a difference in every discipline in Miami-Dade County. We continue to grow, to evolve, to catch up and more often than not to lead in the field. This decade is very exciting,” Shack said.

In total, the festival will feature 12 world premieres, seven international premieres, 13 North American premieres, and 15 U.S. premieres. Not to mention multiple galas, competitions, master class seminars, retrospectives, and more from March 1 through 10 at various venues around town including the Gusman, the Tower Theater and Coral Gables Art Cinema. Because we couldn’t begin to list it all here, film buffs can check out the full lineup at miamifilmfestival.com. [Source]

Viggo Mortensen has signed on to produce and star in Lisandro Alonso’s untitled drama set in Denmark and Argentina.

Andy Kleinman’s Massive Inc. will produce together with Mortensen’s Perceval Films banner and Alonso’s 4L. Jaime Romandia of Mantarraya and Ilse Hughan of Fortuna Films are also producing.

Production is scheduled to start early next year in Denmark and Argentina. Script by Alonso and Fabian Casas follows a Dane and his daughter who journey to a desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.

Alonso’s first film, “La Libertad,” screened in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes in 2001. His last film, “Liverpool,” premiered at Cannes.

Mortensen, whose father is Danish, was last seen as Sigmund Freud in “A Dangerous Method” and will be seen next in “On the Road” and “Two Faces of January,” Hossein Amini’s directorial debut. He’s managed by Lynn Rawlins. [Source]

Award-winning actor Viggo Mortensen delivered a Screen Talk at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday in which he discussed his latest role in Ana Piterbarg’s Everybody Has A Plan (Todos Tenemos Un Plan) as well as highlights of his film career.

Mortensen – who spent the first ten years of his life in Argentina – plays identical twins in Piterbarg’s film, which was screened at the festival. He said he was attracted to the project because although he had worked on three Spanish-language films before, this was the first one in which the dialect was easy and familiar.

“I’ve been wanting for some time to…be in an Argentine movie,” Mortensen commented. “Not just because of my personal connection to the community but because Argentina is a country that has a very good reputation, deservedly so, for producing very good actors, theatre, movie actors and good directors.”

To introduce Mortensen’s career retrospective, moderator and London Film Critics’ Circle chairman Jason Solomons played a clip from Sean Penn’s Indian Runner (1991) – which Mortensen said he hadn’t seen since its premiere – followed by scenes from Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises (2007).

Mortensen said he doesn’t normally look back on his work, but while recently watching the Lord of the Rings films back-to-back, he noticed flaws in his accent for the character Aragorn.

“[I wanted him to have] a Western British sound, different kinds of r’s…[and make it] gradually change, and by the end of the second movie and into the third movie, I wanted [Aragorn’s] speech to change,” he said. “I had that intention and I tried to stick to it. But every once in a while, I would slip.”

Immediately after the Screen Talk, Mortensen flew to Istanbul to continue filming the thriller The Two Faces of January alongside Kirsten Dunst. [Source]

Gallery Link:
– 56th BFI London Film Festival: Viggo Mortensen Screen Talk