Noomi Rapace swings for a boxing movie
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EXCLUSIVE: Noomi Rapace, the white-hot Swedish actress who reprises her role as Lisbeth Salander one last time in this weekend’s ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,’ is taking a lead part in a new boxing movie -- opposite her ex-husband.
Rapace, who is on the verge of English-language stardom with a role in ‘Sherlock Holmes 2,’ is set to star in a biopic about the colorful Swedish boxer Boss Hogberg, in which she’ll play real-life cabaret singer Anita Lindblom, who was married to the prizefighter.
Rapace will star in the English-language movie with Ola Rapace, to whom she was married for seven years. They recently divorced but remain on good terms.
Hogberg’s life and career was the stuff of ‘Raging Bull’-esque legend: The product of a working-class Gothenburg neighborhood, Hogberg captured the light-middleweight title (and lost it three weeks later), boxed through pain (he once fought 14 rounds with a broken jaw), romanced starlets, dealt with alcoholism and ran into legal troubles like Jack Thompson used to run into right hooks. His life changed -- somewhat -- when he met and married Lindblom.
Even with Noomi Rapace’s schedule filling up, producers say they’re not concerned about timing, with the idea to shoot the as-yet-untitled film as early as this summer in Sweden and France.
The movie will reunite the Rapaces with producer Helena Danielsson (who will produce with Malte Forssell and L.A.-based Paradox Entertainment). They previously collaborated on the addiction drama ‘Beyond,’ which is set to be released in various countries over the coming months.
Before breaking out in ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,’ Rapace starred in a number of movies in Scandinavia, including the Danish movie ‘Daisy Diamond,’ in which she played the role of a teen mom. It’s a path she’s apparently not abandoning: Even as she continues to book Hollywood roles (besides ‘Sherlock,’ she’s also set for the vampire movie ‘The Last Voyage of Demeter’), she’s continuing to take parts in European art-house productions.
-- Steven Zeitchik
twitter.com/Zeitchik/LAT
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