News

Thriller series “Red Light” world premieres Sunday as part of the competition section of Canneseries. Variety spoke to its stars and co-creators Halina Reijn and Carice van Houten, and writer Esther Gerritsen.

In the show, Van Houten, who played Melisandre in “Game of Thrones,” plays Sylvia, a brothel madam in Antwerp’s red light district. Reijn is opera singer Esther, and Maaike Neuville plays Evi, a woman struggling to be both a good mother and a detective solving brutal crimes.

The three women get caught up in the world of human trafficking and prostitution when Esther’s husband – a philosophy professor – disappears. From completely different backgrounds the lives of these women intertwine and they find out they need each other to get out of the difficult situations they’re trapped in.

The show is written by Gerritsen, alongside Christophe Dirickx, Frank Ketelaar and Reijn. The directors are Wouter Bouvijn and Anke Blondé.

Federation Entertainment has acquired international distribution rights to “Red Light,” a women-driven series created by Carice van Houten (“Game of Thrones”) and Halina Reijn (‘Instinct’) which will world premiere in competition at the third edition of Canneseries.

The 10-part Belgian/Dutch co-production, “Red Light” portrays three women with completely different backgrounds who get caught up in a world of human trafficking, prostitution and exploitation between Amsterdam and Antwerp. Sylvia, a prostitute, runs a brothel with her shady boyfriend, Esther is a well known soprano and comes from a wealthy environment and Evi is a policewoman trying to combine a major case with her family life.

“We have a mission to tell stories from a female perspective. ‘Red Light’ is exactly that: a story about women, sexuality and power but with enormous urgency,” said van Houten and Reijn.

“We’re very proud that, after a wonderful development and shoot with the whole team,...

“Instinct” star Carice van Houten says she had to “dig deep within” herself to play her character in the drama, in which she plays a prison therapist who falls in love with her patient, a serial rapist.

“The role is not, per se, very sympathetic and it’s a challenging role because there is no way you can hide behind anything,” van Houten told TheWrap’s Steve Pond at the Toronto International Film Festival. “It’s so raw, so I had to dig deep within myself and I liked that. It’s a very complex, very layered character. I was very hungry for something like that again.”

Director Halina Reijn got the idea for the drama after watching a news program about relationships that were formed in prison between therapists and criminals, and she immediately called her friend van Houten about it.

Also Read: Ellen Page: I'd Be 'Thrilled' to...

’You see these great roles for women but they’re male gaze roles.’

Man Up Film partners Halina Reijn and Carice van Houten, whose first completed film Instinct gets its North American premiere in Tiff on Saturday (7), have optioned rights to Second World War bestseller The High Nest.

Roxane van Iperen’s novel centres on two sisters who ran a safehouse for Jews and survived the camps. “It’s a totally female-driven story,” said Reijn, who interviewed the women’s children. “I want to make it in this contemporary way with clear parallels to what’s happening with immigration and refugees today.

Now that “Game of Thrones” has finally reached its conclusion, releasing its gifted international ensemble into the casting wilds, will Hollywood remember just what it has in Carice van Houten? It’s not that the statuesque Dutch thesp hasn’t been consistently employed since her startling 2006 breakout in Paul Verhoeven’s “Black Book,” or even that she’s been underappreciated. But few filmmakers have tested her emotional breadth and technical control the way Verhoeven did — and for anyone who’s forgotten the extent of van Houten’s skill set, actress-turned-filmmaker Halina Reijn’s impressive, icily disciplined debut feature “Instinct” provides a fearsome reminder.

Perhaps van Houten just responds best to the care of a confident provocateur. It’s apt that her strongest big-screen showcase since “Black Book” is the kind of hot, confrontational psychodrama you can imagine Verhoeven himself dreaming up, albeit with a frank view of gendered desire and...

Berlin-based international sales agent Films Boutique has picked up psychological thriller “Instinct,” starring Carice van Houten, who received an Emmy nomination Tuesday for “Game of Thrones,” and Marwan Kenzari, recently seen in Guy Ritchie’s “Aladdin.” “Instinct” has its world premiere on the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival next month.

“Instinct,” the directorial debut of Halina Reijn, and written by Esther Gerritsen and Reijn, centers on a seasoned psychologist, who – in spite of her expertise and experience – becomes infatuated by the sex offender she is treating in a penal institution.

Nicoline (van Houten) starts a new job as a psychologist at a penal institution, where she meets Idris (Kenzari), a sex offender who committed a series of grave crimes. After five years of treatment, he is about to go on his first unaccompanied probation. His team of practitioners is enthusiastic about his development, but Nicoline does not trust him,...