Kormákur’s The Deep Wins Eleven Edda Awards

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Wed, 02/27/2013 - 19:00 -- Nick Dager

Baltasar Kormákur’s riveting drama The Deep won a record 11 Edda Awards at the annual ceremony celebrating Icelandic film and television the most honors a film has received in the event’s 15 year history. The film received 16 nominations in 14 categories and among the prizes won was Best Film of the Year Best Director Best Actor in a Leading Role for Ólafur Darri Ólafsson Best Cinematography  Bergsteinn Bjorgulfsson and Best Original Score Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason.  Focus World will release The Deep in the United States on May 21 and the movie will open in 19 countries throughout Scandinavia and Europe in the coming the year as well as Canada Japan Brazil and several Latin American countries.  Kormákur’s next feature will be an American movie that films in Iceland called Everest based on the cautionary tale and real life adventure on the mountain in 1996 when eight climbers died in the span of two days due to a series of horrific mishaps and bad decisions. The Deep is based on the astonishing true story of the sole survivor of a capsized fishing boat and the actual incident captured the imaginations of the Icelandic people including Kormákur who was a teenager at the time.  Much later he saw a stage play based on the event which also coincided with Iceland’s infamous economic meltdown. Kormákur saw a metaphor in the protagonist whose greatest act of courage is to return home and to the sea to a lifestyle and value system that seemed to have gotten away as Iceland became more economically prosperous. Kormákur’s take on the story clearly resonated with his countrymen as evinced by the Edda Awards and the opening weekend gross when The Deep took in more than 50 percent of the total box office receipts. The Deep became Iceland’s Academy Award nominee and made the foreign Oscar shortlist. Kormákur is in pre-production on his next Icelandic feature Rocketman which he will produce through his Blueeyes Productions along with Agnes Johansen for Dagur Kari to direct.  His upcoming American movie the thriller 2 Guns from Universal Pictures starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg opens August 16 and he will also direct the pilot episode of the HBO thriller The Missionary which Mark Wahlberg Steve Levinson and Malcolm Gladwell will produce.