Netflix Cancels Mads Mikkelsen Movie a Week Before Filming

Just days before filming was set to begin on Mads Mikkelsen's upcoming Netflix film, the streaming giant has halted production. According to a report from Deadline, the Alexander Payne-directed film has been halted due to a rights issue regarding the film with the issue rumored to be that the subject of the film, Norwegian journalist and author Karl Ove Knausgard, who had an "out" option, decided not to go forward and efforts to get things put together so that the film could continue were unsuccessful.

The untitled film made headlines last month after Netflix beat out several rival bids for the film. In the project, Mikkelsen was set to star in the father-daughter story that follows a Danish journalist as he takes a road trip with his teen daughter across the U.S. all while writing a story for a newspaper. While there aren't a lot of details about the film, Knausgard -- whose works are largely autobiographical -- has previously admitted that much of his success has come at the sacrifice of personal relationships with friends and family, which may explain the author's alleged change of heart.

The untitled film featured a script written by Erlend Loe and was set to shoot in Sweden, Denmark, and the U.S. For Netflix, the abrupt halting of the film takes what was hoped to be a 2020 awards-season project off the table for the streaming giant. It's not impossible that some sort of deal can be made with Knausgard in the future, though at this point it appears that the film could be shelved indefinitely.

As for Payne, the director does have other projects currently in the pipeline, including the dark satirical comedy The Menu which was looking at Emma Stone and Ralph Fiennes in starring roles. Mikkelsen's latest, a role as a minor antagonist in Hideo Kojima's upcoming PS4 exclusive, Death Stranding, is set to release on November. Mikkelsen recently praised Kojima and his vision for that project.

"I've spent two hours with it, and it blew me away," Mikkelsen said previously. "It was insane to watch where this is taking us. Not only was it mind blowing visually, but also the way it was played. It's kind of out of the box, something we've never ever seen before. And I guess that's what people expect from Hideo Kojima. He is the Godfather of creating new things."

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