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Baltasar Kormákur was in a reflective mood at the Taormina Film Festival, where his romantic drama Touch had its Italian premiere this past week. The Icelandic filmmaker compared Touch to his first feature, 2000’s 101 Reykjavik. The former was “a black comedy about love,” while Touch is “a way more sincere approach to love and life,” he said.

Touch, which has just become the biggest film of the year in Iceland at $569,600, is based on Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s bestselling 2021 novel Snerting. It wouldn’t be surprising to see it become the Icelandic entry for the International Feature Oscar race this year — Kormákur already has repped his home country four times, making the shortlist with 2012’s The Deep.

The multi-hyphenate, who for years has worked across Iceland and Hollywood, told Deadline that he sparked to Touch’s source material immediately but only later realized he had a particular connection to the story.

Sing Sing, the powerful, poignant prison drama starring Colman Domingo, opens NY/LA, with indie love stories Dandelion and Touch debuting on hundreds of screens as distributors continue to tinker with release patterns. Martin Scorsese, eloquent as always, narrates (and executive produced) Made In England: The Films of Powell And Pressburger. Sorry/Not Sorry takes on comedian Louis C.K.

It’s a mixed specialty market still below pre-Covid levels but buoyed recently by hits like Thelma and hopeful that cinema goers are starting to sort out what to see, when and where.

“I think you’re starting to see who’s really theatrical and who isn’t. The lines are becoming clearer. Like, ‘Okay, I’m going to see this, Inside Out 2, in a theater, and I’m going to see that at the Angelika, or wherever, it might be. But I’m going to see it in a theater,...

Icelandic actor/director Baltasar Kormákur is a member of a growing cadre of international filmmakers who make films at home as well as Hollywood. Kormákur is best known for studio action adventures such as “Contraband” (2012), his remake of his 2000 breakout “101 Reykjavik.” Producer/star Mark Wahlberg took a shine to the rugged director, and went on to make another film with him, the $80-million actioner “2 Guns” (2013), co-starring Denzel Washington.

Accustomed to weathering harsh conditions while directing such films as the International Oscar-shortlisted survival film “The Deep” (2013), Kormákur used many tricks in his filmmaking arsenal for Jake Gyllenhaal starrer “Everest” (2015), blending a subzero soundstage with vertiginous ladders, real snow, location footage in the Dolomites, and CGI extensions.

But like many Hollywood imports, he returned to his own country to start a production company and live a double life. He makes some projects in Hollywood (2022’s “Beast” starring Idris Elba), and...

It’s kind of been a minute since we’ve heard from Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur. Starting his career with acclaimed Icelandic films and thrillers like “101 Reykjavík,” “The Sea,” and “A Little Trip to Heaven,” he then graduated to Hollywood filmmaking, taking on commercial action and thriller efforts like “Contraband,” “2 Guns,” and the mountain climbing film “Everest” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and an ensemble American cast.

Continue reading ‘Touch’ Trailer: Filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s Romantic Thriller Opens July 12 at The Playlist.

Baltasar Kormakur and his banner, Rvk Studios, are teaming up with Icelandic author Olaf Olafsson on the film adaptation of the writer’s bestselling novel “Touching” (“Snerting”).

Olafsson, a former executive VP at Time Warner, is a prolific and critically acclaimed author whose books – notably “Absolution,” “The Journey Home,” “The Sacrament” and “One Station Away” – have been published around the world being translated into more than 20 languages.

Set amid the 2020 pandemic, “Touching” – a working title for the movie – is described as a sensual and thrilling love story unfolding across the globe and woven into historical events. The novel, which ranked as Iceland’s best-selling book of 2020, takes place in today’s Reykjavík and Tokyo, and in London in the 1960s.

Olafsson is currently adapting the story into a screenplay. Kormakur will produce via his outfit Rvk Studios and will direct the film, which is now in advanced development. Production is...

Jeremy Renner, who is shooting Lords of Dogtown, has lined up two indie features. Renner takes the lead in 12 and Holding, the next film from director Michael Cuesta (L.I.E.). He will play a former firefighter who moves to a new town for construction work following the loss of a young girl whose death haunts him. Renner then travels to Iceland for A Little Trip to Heaven, directed by Baltasar Kormakur (101 Reykjavik). He will star opposite Julia Stiles and Forest Whitaker as a con man who busts out of prison to search for his former partner in crime and lover (Stiles), who also happens to be his sister. Renner was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for playing the title role in Dahmer. He also co-starred in S.W.A.T. He next appears in Love Comes to the Executioner. Renner is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and attorney Patti Felker.