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Jørn Utzon’s battle to build the Sydney Opera House set for the big screen

Jørn Utzon in Sydney.

The story of the Sydney Opera House's creation is set to be turned into a film in a co-production between Australia, Denmark and Sweden.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the film's working title is Utzon: The Man Behind The Opera House.

The film will be exec produced by Ole Sondberg (the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Right 2Know’s Lars Weiss alongside Swedish-Australian producer Jann Marnell from Right2Know and Aussie producers Marion Macgowan (South Solitary) and Peter Herbert.

The film will focus on Danish architect Utzon’s battles with the NSW government which eventually led to his resignation from the project.

Petter Skavlan, the writer of Kon-Tiki, is writing the script, and said "the battle between the architect and the corrupt Askin government" was "perfect movie material." 

Producer Marnell said the story encompassed "creativity versus bureaucracy and political manoeuvring ranging from friend to foe." 

"We have an outstanding architect with streaks of megalomania and genius, and his vengeful opponents who plot to get him out of the country. We are incredibly excited about the prospect of telling the story of the creation of the Sydney Opera House."

Paging Mads Mikkelsen…

  1. But which story are they going to tell? The simplistic popular myth – or the real one? The mythology surrounding the Opera House narrative is breathtakingly skewed. Be very careful.

  2. Anybody who is interested in this story has to see THE EDGE OF THE POSSIBLE which is the doco from Sue Maslin that is my all time fave film of hers and an ASTONISHING piece of work about the making of the opera house. Just sayin’ But there’s always room for a great drama and look forward to this.

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