Movies based on 'Apothecary Melchior' book series to start shooting in July
There will be a trilogy of feature movies produced of the Indrek Hargla's crime novels series "Apothecary Melchior" (Apteeker Melchior) consisting of seven books. The shooting starts on July 13 and the director is Elmo Nüganen, a well-known movie and theater director. The shooting will take until the end of the year and the production budget is €6 million.
On July 13, the firsts scenes of the trilogy will be shot. The plot is based on Indrek Hargla's novels and the original scenario written by Elmo Nüganen, Olle Mirme and Indrek Hargla.
Nüganen's students from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater will also perform in the movie. Märten Metsaviir will be the Pharmacist Melchior, other main actors will be Alo Kõrve and Maarja Johanna Mägi.
The trilogy tells three stories of the Apothecary Melchior living in Tallinn, whose task is to uncover the secret behind a wave of horrible murders. In the opening movie, Melchior needs to solve the murder of a famous knight of the order. The protagonist finds out that the victim was going after a mysterious prisoner in Tallinn, whose traces lead back to the local Dominican monastery.
One of the producers of the movie, Armin Karu, said the movie producers want to achieve the atmosphere of medieval Tallinn, for which the shooting sets are being built in Tallinn, Narva, Purtse, Lääne-Viru County, Saare County and Latvia.
"It is a very interesting project for me because medieval time was an interesting period in Tallinn's history. The Apothecary Melchior book series is very popular not only in Estonia but is translated to other languages as well," he said and added that because there are professional movie producers in the team, he thinks that the movie will be successful.
The shooting starts in July 2020. "Apothecary Melchior" will air in cinemas in the fall of 2021.
The screenplay for the second film in the trilogy, "Apothecary Melchior. Hallucination", ( "Apteeker Melchior. Viirastus") is based on the novel "Apothecary Melchior and the Hallucination of Rataskaevu" ("Apteeker Melchior and Rataskaevu viirastus"). The screenplay for the third film "Apteeker Melchior. Timuka tütar" ("Apothecary Melchior: Daughter of the Executioner") was based on Hargla's novel "Apothecary Melchior and the Daughter of the Executioner".
The director of the movie is Elmo Nüganen, authors are Indrek Hargla, Elmo Nüganen and Olle Mirme. The producers of the movie are Kristian Taska from Taska Film, Esko Rips from Nafta Films, Armin Karu from HansaFilm, Tanel Tatter and Veiko Esken from Apollo Film Production. The co-producers of the Estonian-Latvian trilogy are Jānis Kalējs (Film Angels Productions, Latvia) and Philipp Kreuzer (Maze Productions, Germany). The cameraman is Mihkel Soe and the artist Matis Mäesalu.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino
