"It's nice to film here so I can come home and sleep in my own bed and see my family. So says the world famous Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who is currently home in Copenhagen to play the lead role in a new film.

And it is not a Danish film but about a major international production, directed by famous American Brian De Palma, who has previously made films as 'Mission Impossible'.

The movie is called 'Domino' and the first 20 minutes of the film depicting a sweeping human hunt through Europe takes place in Copenhagen.

"The film is about some of the things we’re going through here in Europe with all the terrorist attacks and the question of who are we really fighting. What is the conflict? At first, you think it’s a simple story with a policeman who is being attacked. But then we see that everything is connected and this unpleasant paranoia and anxiety happening in Europe because of the security situation. You always think: "What the hell is it now, what's next?" Says Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

The film was English-language

He is very excited to work with director Brian De Palma, which is actually the reason why the film will be English-language.

According to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, it was a huge surprise that the director said yes to join:

- I simply thought this couldn’t work. It may not be right, so I flew over to New York to meet him. He said he would like to make it, but that we simply had to speak English. The original was a Danish screenplay, because it is about Danish police officers, and we said, "We can understand that." It is difficult to direct a language that you do not understand. But it's great to work with such a man. He has a natural authority and is very comfortable to work with. We are very, very happy.

Good to get big movies to the country

'Domino' has a budget of NOK 50 million, of which the Copenhagen Film Fund has contributed two million to get eight-nine days to Copenhagen.

If you ask Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, it's something you have to do much more often - and not just because it means that Danish actors like him may be allowed to sleep in their own bed:

"Everywhere in Europe, you try to attract the bigger movie, because there is a huge economy in it, but in Denmark we do not have the big film studios where we can build a whole lot. I hope we will, because I have not met anyone around the world who does not love coming to Denmark, he says.

...

In the footage in Copenhagen, as TV 2 followed, there were two playing the main role of Nikolaj Coster-Waldaus. The main character should fall down from a house and land in a stack of tomato boxes. And in such a situation, a costly starring actor like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is saved and a Belgian stuntman hired to take the fall (see the article [video?] on the above).

"I have great respect for stunt men. Sometimes people think they do not hurt, but they go through hell, too. I have sometimes experienced that it's going wrong, and so I'm hugely impressed with how hard they work,” says Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

- One of the first things I saw when I started was a Danish stuntman who had to jump 12 meters and land in some boxes. There he made a test jump. But when he landed he was quite quiet, and then he said, "We just need someone to call an ambulance. I have just verified." While he lay there waiting, he called for another stuntman so we could continue to shoot on. I would have yelled out, for sure.

Do you as an actor want to do the stunts yourself?

- If things are really dangerous, you will not to do it yourself as an actor. You won't do it, because you could get hurt. But you would like to maintain the illusion. You would like people to believe it's the actor all the way. That's why it's so amazing that one such as Tom Cruise makes many stunts himself. I also try to do as much as I can myself, but I am not jumping off a roof.

Also yesterday, Bouzan Hadawi posted an Instagram pic showing himself having a glass of wine with Eriq Ebouaney in Copenhagen. A couple of days before that, Hadawi posted pictures of himself with his Domino stunt double.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to win the Best Director Oscar (for “The Hurt Locker”), and her reputation is largely associated with the formidable kinetic skills she brings to action pictures such as “Strange Days” and “Point Break.”

What’s less known about Bigelow is that she came of age in the conceptual-art scene in New York in the 1970s, and that her master of fine arts thesis film for Columbia University consisted of two men pummeling each other while a professorial observer spouted French theory about the nature of violence.

In short, Bigelow brings a lot to the table. This is truer than ever in “Detroit,” a hot-button horror show that returns Bigelow to her roots in a way that is both fascinating and difficult to watch.

The film begins in patchwork fashion: Detroit racial tension escalates in July 1967. For its first 20 minutes, the movie is a mosaic, complete with archival footage of President Lyndon Johnson and Michigan Gov. George Romney.

In a slow, sneaky way — I can’t think of many movies that have edged toward disaster quite this sinuously — a musical interlude (singers denied their moment on stage when the theater is evacuated because of the violence outside) gradually lead us into what turns out to be the main subject of the film. Lead singer Larry (a remarkable performance by Algee Smith) and buddy Fred (Jacob Latimore) escape the dangerous streets by checking in at the Algiers Motel.

Before long, they’re swept up in police action, as a group of young black men and two white women are beaten and threatened by white policemen. This nerve-shredding situation (based on fact) occupies the long center section of the film.

“Detroit” is written by reporter Mark Boal, who also scripted Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Hurt Locker.” Part of the goal here is journalistic, an observational look at how racial violence explodes — one never doubts that the movie is being made now because of the Black Lives Matter movement and the violence that birthed it. But it seems to me that what Bigelow does with the premise dates back to her conceptual-art days.

The shakedown sequence in “Detroit” goes on so long and contains so much excruciating punishment that it turns into something close to ’60s-era guerrilla-theater, where an unsuspecting audience is put through the wringer. (Brian De Palma used this technique, while simultaneously satirizing it, in his 1970 film “Hi Mom!”)

The sequence is too much, a depiction of cruelty that becomes almost sadistic itself. It’s almost nauseating at times. But Bigelow is trying to get us to feel something — what it’s like to be terrorized by the forces that are supposed to be protecting us, for one thing — and she will violate our assumptions about movie-watching in order to do it.

Bigelow and Boal have brilliantly created a bitter pill. We want oppressed characters to fight back and triumph, and there’s no triumph here. There is only one, strangely magical interlude, when Larry and Fred get loose from the terror for a moment — but just for a moment.

Schønnemann tells Ludvigsen that De Palma had read the script and was so excited, he signed on to direct. "It's going smoothly," Schønnemann is quoted in the article. "De Palma is one of the big ones, and you notice it when you work. We are back to some classic De Palma, beautifully lit and with complicated camera movements." Regarding De Palma and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, Schønnemann says, "They are both older men, but they work around the clock and have completely mastered it."

The SoundVenue article mentions that "Guy Pearce is also on the cast list," although it is hard to tell if that news is taken from IMDB, where Pearce has been listed as part of the cast for weeks, or from a more reliable source.

UPDATE: AUGUST 6, 2017 As of Sunday, August 6th, Pearce is no longer listed in IMDB's cast list for Domino.

These days, van Houten has been zig-zagging through Europe—baby in tow this time—to film Brian De Palma's Domino alongside Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. "It felt like a huge step to work again after having my baby," she says. "But I thought, there's no way I could say no to Brian De Palma"—the visionary director whose diverse filmography includes Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, and the first Mission: Impossible. "He's a young guy in the body of a man with so much experience," says van Houten. "He can be quite blunt, and he's not afraid to swear, which I find nice because then at least I don't have to hold back either."

Van Houten and Coster-Waldau play two cops whose investigation into their fellow officer's murder leads them down a rabbit hole populated by CIA agents, ISIS cells, and an international terror plot. Despite the thriller's thoroughly modern and reality-rooted themes, all roads still lead back to Westeros. "It's funny, even I sometimes think, 'Look at me, I'm sitting in a car, having a scene with Jaime Lannister!'" says van Houten. And yes, even they pore over Game of Thrones theories in their off time. "I was talking to Nikolaj the other day about it," she says. "We were sitting in the Green Room, and I said, 'What do you think will happen?' He said, 'I have no fucking clue!'"

You're working on Brian De Palma's Domino with Nikolaj (Coster-Waldau), and had you worked with him before?

No! That was the same thing, it was so strange to have a scene in the car, for people to see us together in regular clothes, with contemporary dialogue. Look at me, with Jaime Lannister! He's so cool!

And he has two hands, which is probably a surprise...

And I don't have red hair!

Has it been good interacting with him?

We'd met in the hallways of hotels and premieres, but not really. It's nice anyway to be around other Europeans! And him being Danish, I've always been fascinated by the Scandinavian language and now I'm in Copenhagen and f*g loving it. It's great to work with the Danes around here... Apart from Mr. De Palma!

How is it working with Brian De Palma?

It's great to work with someone at his age with his kind of spirit. I feel very lucky to be in that role.