Film about Sywert van Lienden also mocks the Netherlands in times of crisis | NOW
The against Sywert van Lien is still ongoing, but Dutch film producers are not letting grass grow on it. Lately different creators have the rights of the book Sywert’s millions to get your hands on. Producer Alain de Levita drew the longest straw and will let NU.nl know which ideas he is walking around with.
A country that does not know what to do, the ignorance of the government and a young person who becomes overconfident: everything around Van Lienden turned out to be great for a film. “Simply beautiful,” says De Levita in summary. “Sun rise and fall you don’t get to see one person so easily in real life. The fact that the judge still has to change a judgment does not make a big difference to us.”
The film producer explains further: “Whether they are made of not, they are already being made throughout the Netherlands. Sywert has left such a mercilessly hard future on his record. Being in the Netherlands is over. The judge’s verdict is of course interesting. And in all honesty: we have only just started and have not come up with an end, in any case we are very happy that we Follow the money got the rights.”
‘Corona time is a great decor’
The filming of Sywert’s millions should not be too serious in tone, says De Levita. “On the one hand, the corona crisis has been terrible. Sywert’s story is also actually very ugly, if you present it as the facts are. Then it would be top heavy. But the corona time has also been a great backdrop.
“We think we’ve got everything right here,” De Levita continues. “But in such a crisis we get to be one of the worse countries on fronts. We will first consult, but the polder model does not work well in a much more real crisis. This film can therefore also be a very nice mirror, so that we can see what kind of country we really are.”
Movies about scammers often come with a charming main character, as in The Wolf of Wall Street and Catch me if you can. “We probably won’t go that way,” says De Levita. “The tone of those films is good, but our protagonist does not become a charming man who wraps everyone around his fingers, because Sywert is not that at all.”
Thrown to death with Minister De Jonge
“We are still looking for exactly which direction it should go,” says the producer. “In any case, it may be a bit over the top. Very nice to enlarge characters that we have been thrown to death with, such as Minister De Jonge. I think people are waiting for that.”
Making a film can sometimes take years, but the Levita wants to get to work faster in this case. He has already been in contact with a possible player and will be looking for a director and screenwriter for weeks. “This is a topic that you should not wait five years with,” says the producer. “We hope to have it in cinemas next year.”