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Smash Hit TV Drama 'Borgen' is Back 10 Years On

Many of the original actors are back, including Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg, seen here second from right Philip Davali Ritzau Scanpix/AFP
Many of the original actors are back, including Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg, seen here second from right Philip Davali Ritzau Scanpix/AFP
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Smash Hit TV Drama 'Borgen' is Back 10 Years On

Many of the original actors are back, including Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg, seen here second from right Philip Davali Ritzau Scanpix/AFP
Many of the original actors are back, including Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg, seen here second from right Philip Davali Ritzau Scanpix/AFP

"Borgen" is back. The Danish political drama about a charismatic woman who becomes prime minister took the world by storm and morphed into one of Scandinavia's biggest television exports returns a decade on.

On Sunday, the fourth series will air on Danish TV ahead of its much-anticipated international debut on Netflix in the spring.

Viewers last saw former Danish prime minister Birgitte Nyborg the day after her brand-new political party scored a sensational win in elections. Ten years on, she is foreign minister in a government headed by a woman 10 years her junior.

"Since we said goodbye to Birgitte, a lot of things have changed," said Henriette Marienlund, head of drama at Danish public broadcaster DR which developed the series.

"She's older, her life is different, her children have grown up and the world is different," Marienlund told AFP.

As Denmark's top diplomat -- a job she was eyeing at the end of season three -- Nyborg now finds herself dealing with the discovery of oil in Greenland, Denmark's autonomous territory, believing it holds the key to its independence.

For the fourth season, "Borgen –- The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory", series creator Adam Price wanted a whole new storyline, explained Marienlund. Many of the original actors are back, however, including Sidse Babett Knudsen as Nyborg.

Except this time, she has a very different role.

Denmark's new fictional prime minister, Signe Kragh, has no intention of getting her toes stepped on, and the same goes for Greenland's foreign minister Hans Eliassen.

- 'More international' -
"Even though this season is more international than the previous ones, it is still a very Danish series where you see a lot of the Danish lifestyle", said Marienlund.

It was this skilful mix of "hygge", the cosy Danish outlook seen as exotic abroad, with realism, as normal people grapple with everyday problems that was considered integral to its success.

"Borgen was commissioned for a Danish audience", says University of Copenhagen assistant film professor Eva Redvall, an expert on Scandinavian drama.

"Its international success came as a surprise," she added.

"The interplay of the political arena, the personal drama and the media in a Danish setting turned out to also intrigue and fascinate abroad".

When "Borgen" first aired in 2010, its portrayal of a woman running a government as well as raising two young children was relatively novel, at least in many Western countries. It was not until 2011 that a woman first served as Denmark's prime minister as reality followed fiction.

In the intervening years, a woman became Sweden's prime minister in 2021. Britain got only its second in 2016 and in 2017, Jacinda Ardern became New Zealand's first prime minister to give birth while in office.

"In Denmark, Borgen is mainstream TV and abroad it's a niche subtitled series. The international audience sometimes focuses on things that are not subjects to talk about in Denmark, for instance the prime minister biking to work", adds Redvall.

- Popularity of Scandi drama -
Sold to more than 190 countries, "Borgen" gained a new and younger audience after its first three seasons landed on streaming site Netflix in 2020.

The site has invested heavily in Scandinavian productions.

By end-2021, Netflix's overall catalogue included more than 70 Nordic shows, illustrating a seemingly insatiable appetite 15 years after popular gritty Danish crime thriller "The Killing" first aired.

"What started with 'Wallander', 'The Killing', 'Borgen' and 'The Bridge' has developed into more varieties and genres'," from the rom-com 'Home for Christmas' to science-fiction series 'Real Humans', Redvall says.

Netflix "has helped promote that diversity because they have made more people watch series with subtitles, which was very uncommon before, especially for UK audiences".

According to the streaming site, almost two-thirds of subscribers worldwide watched a Nordic series or film in 2021.

Netflix hasn't revealed a release date for the eight new episodes of "Borgen" yet, but it won't be until after the series finishes airing in Denmark.

In the country of 5.8 million people, previous seasons attracted up to 1.6 million viewers.

"There's a lot of hype, so many people will probably be watching", says Redvall, "especially since there is a combination of 'old' viewers and a new younger audience who discovered the series on Netflix".

For now, only one new season has been filmed. Its budget hasn't been disclosed.

"I don't know yet if there will be more", says Marienlund, nevertheless hoping for a hit.

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Entertainment

Hollywood Studios and Actors’ Union Find Common Ground on AI

SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland attributed the mostly drama-free agreements with studios during this round of negotiations to a new mindset. (AFP)
SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland attributed the mostly drama-free agreements with studios during this round of negotiations to a new mindset. (AFP)
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Hollywood Studios and Actors’ Union Find Common Ground on AI

SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland attributed the mostly drama-free agreements with studios during this round of negotiations to a new mindset. (AFP)
SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland attributed the mostly drama-free agreements with studios during this round of negotiations to a new mindset. (AFP)

As Hollywood's performers cast their ballots to approve the latest negotiated contract, union leaders say they have made some progress in conversations with studio bosses since the massive strike in 2023, especially when it comes to concerns about artificial intelligence.

SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland attributed the mostly drama-free agreements in this round of negotiations to a new mindset, "because the studios and streamers came to the table with a different perspective."

With 160,000 members working in film, television and video games, SAG-AFTRA is the largest and most influential union of its kind globally.

Members of the actors' union are voting on a newly negotiated agreement that was approved by the national board earlier this month, ahead of the current contract's expiration at the end of June.

"The tone of the negotiation was much more collaborative and a lot more creativity was brought by both sides, so I really believe that the 2023 strikes -- while they were very difficult for all of us -- did help effectuate a reset in the relationship between the studios and the unions in general," Crabtree-Ireland told AFP.

Approval would mean avoiding a repeat of disastrous 2023 strikes that shuttered productions, costing studios billions of dollars, while actors stood their ground against AI and other issues.

- AI's evolutions -

The strike by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) lasted 118 days, with star-studded picket lines outside major studios in Los Angeles and New York, marking the longest such revolt in Hollywood history.

AI technology was a sticking point for many, and that tension persists, Crabtree-Ireland said.

"They do feel more secure than they did in 2023 but there's still a very, very strong concern about AI -- and especially because the generative AI tools have advanced so much in the last three years," he said.

The latest agreement does not close the door on AI, but it does introduce new protections.

Under the new contract, digital replicas -- which use AI or any technology to replicate an actual living or deceased performer -- must "have informed consent and fair compensation," Crabtree-Ireland said.

The contract allows for limited use of synthetics, under "unusual circumstances," when a generative AI system can be used to create a character who is not based on any actual person in the world.

"There's now process in place which would require the companies to come to the union if they want to use a synthetic in a project, they have to demonstrate to us that this synthetic brings a significant additional value to the production," Crabtree-Ireland said.

"While this doesn't rise quite to the level of a complete prohibition, it's a very strong disincentive."

Voting on the latest contract closes June 4.

Entertainment

Oscar-Winning ‘Star Wars’ Editor Marcia Lucas Dies at 80

Marcia Lucas, wife of director George Lucas, right, carries her Oscar statuette as they arrive at a post Academy Awards party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, April 4, 1978. (AP)
Marcia Lucas, wife of director George Lucas, right, carries her Oscar statuette as they arrive at a post Academy Awards party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, April 4, 1978. (AP)
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Oscar-Winning ‘Star Wars’ Editor Marcia Lucas Dies at 80

Marcia Lucas, wife of director George Lucas, right, carries her Oscar statuette as they arrive at a post Academy Awards party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, April 4, 1978. (AP)
Marcia Lucas, wife of director George Lucas, right, carries her Oscar statuette as they arrive at a post Academy Awards party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, April 4, 1978. (AP)

Marcia Lucas, who won an Oscar as editor of the original 1977 “Star Wars" and was part of a group of women whose editing was essential to film's New Hollywood era, has died, a lawyer for her family said Friday. She was 80.

Lucas, who was married to “Star Wars” creator George Lucas from 1969 to 1983, died Wednesday from metastatic cancer, attorney Deidre Von Rock said in an email to The Associated Press. She died in Rancho Mirage, California, surrounded by loved ones, Von Rock said.

Marcia Lucas was the editor on 1983's “Return of the Jedi” and the pre-“Star Wars” George Lucas-directed films “THX 1138” and “American Graffiti.”

She was also part of the editing team for director Martin Scorsese's 1970s films “Taxi Driver,” “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore” and “New York, New York.”

Editor was a rare senior creative position where a woman could find a foothold in Hollywood. Marcia Lucas became one of several women whose work in the editing chair made sense of the work of the overwhelmingly male directors of the New Hollywood of the late 1960s through the early 1980s, including Dede Allen, editor of “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Dog Day Afternoon”; Verna Fields, editor of “Paper Moon” and “Jaws"; and Thelma Schoonmaker, editor of most of Scorsese's films starting with 1980's “Raging Bull.”

Lucas was often called the unsung hero of “Star Wars,” the original film that after sequels, prequels and spinoffs has come to be known by its subtitle, “A New Hope.”

She convinced her then-husband that he should have Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Alec Guinness, die in his lightsaber battle with Darth Vader and become a spirit guide to Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker.

And she had to make sense of raw footage that could have been a mess in the wrong hands, including the climactic rebel attack on the Death Star.

“It was extremely complex and we had 40,000 feet of dialogue footage of pilots saying this and that. And she had to cull through all that, and put in all the fighting as well,” George Lucas told Rolling Stone in an interview a few months after the film came out. “Nobody really has ever tried to interweave an actual plot story into a dogfight, and we were trying to do that."

Lucas was born Marcia Griffin in Modesto, California shortly after the end of World War II. She moved to Los Angeles with her mother after her parents divorced when she was a small child.

She began working as a film librarian and moved into working as an editor on commercials, trailers and promotional films. She was an assistant editor on the documentary “Journey to the Pacific” for Fields, who also hired George Lucas, then a film student at the University of Southern California.

The couple became engaged soon after. Their marriage would essentially end in 1982, but they kept their divorce under wraps until after the release of “Return of the Jedi” in 1983. Marcia Lucas was then married to Tom Rodrigues, a production manager at the Skywalker Ranch production center, from 1983 to 1993.

She is survived by her daughters, Amanda Lucas and Amy Soper, and grandchildren Felix Hallikainen, Aeliana Hallikainen and Knox Soper.

"Her influence on film is indelible, but those who knew her best will remember the way she made life feel more vivid, more beautiful, more fun, and more full of love,” a family statement said. “Her work was known for its emotional intelligence, rhythm, and humanity — a rare ability to find the truth of a scene and bring heart, momentum, and clarity to the screen.”

Entertainment

The Golden Trailer Awards: Hollywood’s ‘Oscars’ for Movie Previews

The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer. (Getty Images/AFP)
The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer. (Getty Images/AFP)
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The Golden Trailer Awards: Hollywood’s ‘Oscars’ for Movie Previews

The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer. (Getty Images/AFP)
The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer. (Getty Images/AFP)

The Golden Trailer Awards, which recognize the people behind Hollywood's best-made movie previews, returned for its 26th edition Thursday.

The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer, only to find that those who worked in the field were practically anonymous.

"Trailer editors, the people creating some of the most memorable moments of the moviegoing experience, were completely unrecognized," Brady told AFP.

"They weren't credited on trailers, they weren't credited in films, and there wasn't even a directory to find them."

The pair, who remain as executive producers on the award show, oversaw 19 prizes given out during the inaugural ceremony in New York.

The ceremony was held in Los Angeles and recognized achievements in more than 100 categories.

The night's most coveted statuette for Best of Show went to the trailer for sci-fi movie "Project Hail Mary", starring Ryan Gosling, which was created by Wild Card Creative Group.

But what makes one movie trailer stand out from the rest?

"What makes a great trailer, first and foremost, is a great hook," Watters said.

- 'A tempting appetizer' -

An honoree will likely have "a fresh storyline, compelling characters, an emotional moment, and something audiences haven't seen before," she explained ahead of the ceremony.

"A winning trailer is a tempting appetizer, it is not the whole meal."

Taylor Engel, a creative director at Create Advertising Group -- which received 16 nominations this year for the company's work on trailers for "Sinners,Tron: Ares" and "Only Murders in the Building" -- said editing a trailer is like putting together pieces of a puzzle.

"We get materials at the beginning of the project, and it could be anything. Sometimes you get the movie, sometimes you get just dailies, you know, just the scenes that they shot," Engel said.

The challenge lies in combining the audio, video and editing effects to "tell maybe a different story or showcase the movie in some way."

Like film editing, movie trailers have evolved over the decades in Hollywood, and the crowded marketplace for attention has led to fierce competition.

Sometimes, the trailer ends up being better than the movie itself -- something that has become its own category in the Golden Trailer Awards.

Dubbed the "Golden Fleece," this year's nominees include trailers for the horror film "Shell" starring Elisabeth Moss and "The Strangers: Chapter 3."

- No AI used -

Despite the intense competition and demand, Engel said that the work in making movie trailers is not under the same pressure to utilize artificial intelligence as other sectors of Hollywood.

"Every cut is very specific in why you pair a shot with a certain piece of music," Engel said.

AI tools "may get better at recreating what's been done in the past, but what's exciting about trailers is when you see something that you've never seen before, you see it done in a different way," the creative director said.