Marko Mäkilaakso Adapts It Came From The Desert

Set up last year to champion Scandinavian horror, the Nordic Genre Invasion has most recently infiltrated Cannes, where some significant deals have advanced the cause. Taneli Mustonen's Bodom is finally underway, and it's been joined on its journey to production by Pål Oie's Villmark Asylum and Marko Mäkilaakso's It Came From The Desert.

Mustonen's Bodom is inspired by the legendary unsolved murders at Lake Bodom in 1960 (the metal-inclined may already be familiar with the Finnish Children of Bodom{ =nofollow}, named for the same reason). Set in the present day, the film is about two couples who go to Bodom to reconstruct the events. It goes badly. “We aim to bring down the whole camping industry in Finland,” production company Don Films' Aleksi Hyvärinen chuckled to Empire last autumn. Mustonen's most recent film, The Reunion, was the biggest homegrown box-office hit in Finland in more than a decade.

Oie's Villmark Asylum is actually already in post-production, but secured international deals that should mean it's more widely seen than just in its native Norway. It's a "stand-alone sequel" to Oie's previous Dark Woods **{ =nofollow}, and premieres on its home turf in October.

And if the title It Came From The Desert sounds familiar, it may be because you remember the 16-bit 1989 videogame from which it's adapted - a big deal for Amiga owners at the time, who could only play it if they bought a massive half-megabite hardware upgrade. It involves giant irradiated ants, which should be par for the course for the director of War Of The Dead. Iron Sky's Tero Kaukomaa gets an exec-producer credit, and shooting is set to start in the autumn.

The idea behind the Nordic Genre Invasion is to capitalise on the popularity of the Nordic crime genre in recent years (think writers like Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo; the movies based on their and others’ work; and the TV series’ like Wallander, The Killing and The Bridge which achieved breakout international success). With a feeling that those things are becoming slightly old hat now, it’s an attempt to kick-start something similar for other genres: specifically horror, sci-fi and action.

The Invasion is an umbrella title for a coalition of production companies, who've come together both in an attempt to create a wave and ride it. The initial salvos in that battle are looking promising...