Mads Mikkelsen has landed what could potentially be his biggest ever part.
Used to playing second fiddle in major blockbusters such as ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’, ‘Doctor Strange and ‘Casino Royale’, Mikkelsen will mostly have the big screen all to himself in ‘Arctic’.
He plays a man who finds himself stranded in the ice-capped wilderness and must fight the harsh conditions of his environment to survive.
YouTube star in charge
Produced by Martha de Laurentiis, who Mikkelsen worked with on the series ‘Hannibal’, the film has been entrusted to rising star Joe Penna to direct.
The Brazilian, 29, who co-wrote the script with Ryan Morrison, is better known to his 2.8 million YouTube followers as MysteryGuitarMan. ‘Arctic’ will be his first feature length film, although he has directed four shorts and episodes on four TV series.
Hannibal to return?
Meanwhile, Mikkelsen’s cannibalistic chowdown days might not be over, according to the podcast Shock Waves, as Bryan Fuller – the creator of the series ‘Hannibal’, which screened its third and final season in late 2015 – has not given up on continuing the story.
READ MORE: Mikkelsen’s cannibal days coming to an end
Tantalisingly, for fans of the shows and Dr Lecter’s tastebuds, a return would adapt Thomas Harris’s classic novel ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, but as a miniseries, not a full season.
“We still hope that something can be worked out where we continue telling Hannibal Lecter stories and see ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ in a way that the book hasn’t been represented,” Fuller told Shock Waves.
“I think the film adaptation is a perfect film, but there are a lot of interesting nooks and crannies to explore in a television series. I hope we get to tell the story.”
Hello Clarice, I’ve been expecting you
Fuller has previously suggested Lee Pace (‘Halt and Catch Fire’), who he worked with on his breakout series ‘Pushing Daisies’, as a possible choice to play Buffalo Bill, and Ellen Page (‘Juno’, ‘Inception’) as a good fit for Clarice Starling.