“Norway has over 1100 tunnels, almost none with emergency exits.”
Norway is having a moment regarding disaster movies. In 2015, Fantefilm released the Saturn-nominated The Wave, and in 2018, they dropped the Amanda Award-winning The Quake. Now audiences in the United Kingdom will get a chance to see the latest entry, The Tunnel (Tunnelen).
Based on an actual incident, the film tells the story of tourists and families heading home for Christmas who become trapped after a fuel tanker overturns in the darkness and catches fire. Naturally, one of the first responders has a child inside there, for extra motivation. And of course there’s a blizzard raging outside to complicate matters.
The Tunnel was released in Norway last Christmas, and Signature Entertainment will now be releasing it on video-on-demand (VOD) platforms in the U.K. on September 21. The film has also appeared in theaters in Peru, Russia, and Vietnam, but no word when it will be available to US audiences.
The Villmark 2 writer-director team of Pål Øie and Kjersti Helen Rasmussen reunited to develop The Tunnel. The cast features Thorbjørn Harr (Vikings), Ylva Lyng Fuglerud (Kielergata), Lisa Carlehed (Til vi falder), and Peter Førde (Know Nothins). The film was produced by Nordisk Film Production AS with support from The Norwegian Film Institute, Zefyr Media Fund, and the Western Norway Film Centre.
The film has grossed $2.6 million worldwide to date, on an estimated budget of $4 million.
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