The Weinstein Company announced today that it is partnering with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese to present Daniel Espinosa’s acclaimed Swedish crime thriller Easy Money in New York on July 11, 2012 and in Los Angeles on July 13, 2012.
Based on the international best-selling novel Snabba Cash by Jens Lapidus, Easy Money is a taut and alluring suspense thriller set in the world of organized crime starring Joel Kinnaman (AMC’s “The Killing”), Matias Varela (Storm), Dragomir Mrsic (Wallander), Dejan Cukic (The Trap), and Fares Fares (Safe House). The announcement was made today by TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein.
Easy Money (the English translation of “Snabba Cash”) interweaves the stories of three key players related to a Swedish drug trafficking ring. Lower-class business student JW (Kinnaman) falls in love with a sexy heiress while living a double life mingling with Stockholm’s wealthy elite. To keep up the facade of his lifestyle, he’s lured into a world of crime. Jorge is a petty fugitive on the run from both the police and Serbian mafia. He hopes that brokering a massive cocaine deal will allow him to escape for good. Mafia enforcer Mrado is on the hunt for Jorge, but his efforts are complicated when he’s unexpectedly saddled with caring for his young daughter. As JW’s journey ventures deeper into the dark world of organized crime, the fate of all three men becomes entangled and ends with a dramatic struggle for life and death.
“‘Easy Money’ affirms Daniel Espinosa is a major talent and features the star- making performance by Joel Kinnaman from ‘The Killing,'” said Weinstein. “This taut suspense thriller struck a chord with me, and I’m excited that a visionary like Martin Scorsese shares my passion for this film.”
“I was deeply impressed by Daniel Espinosa’s ‘Easy Money’ by the harsh, elemental style, which reflects the milieu and the lives of the characters; by the powerful sense of fate, of well-meaning people who take one wrong turn and end up paying a terrible price; by the frightening and surprising evolution of the hero. Easy Money is a tough story and a film to be reckoned with,” said Scorsese.
Added Espinosa, “It’s an honor for me, that Harvey Weinstein and Martin Scorsese have embraced ‘Easy Money’ and share my passion for storytelling. I couldn’t imagine this film being in better hands for its U.S. debut.”
The film features a screenplay by Lapidus and Maria Karlsson, and is produced by Fredrik Wikstrom. Michael Hjorth served as executive producer. Lapidus’ international best-selling novel is the first in a trilogy, published by Wahlstrom & Widstrand, that has developed a fiercely loyal global following and “Snabba Cash” was just released in the U.S. last month by Random House Imprint Pantheon. Espinosa is currently developing The Outsider with Warner Bros, and his film Safe House has crossed the $200 million mark in worldwide box office.
