Netflix continues expanding its international endeavors to be more appealing for international audiences. Its latest step in this direction has been the announcement of the co-production of its first Dutch film, which will be a WW2 drama called ‘The Battle of the Scheldt.”
Alain de Levita will produce the movie and Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. The movie is a Dutch-Belgian co-production and will have a $15.5 million budget. The show will premiere on Dutch theaters in November 2020 and on Netflix in the rest of the world on the same date.
The movie is set in 1944 during World War II, and “centers on the bloody but crucial battle that claimed 10,000 lives but secured supply lines for the Allied forces’ push to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany. It follows the lives of three people involved in the conflict: a young Dutchman fighting for the Germans, a stray English glider pilot and a local girl who is part of the resistance movement. Gijs Blom (“Boys”) stars as the Dutch soldier and Jamie Flatters (“Avatar 2”) as the British pilot. Susan Radder plays the resistance fighter.”
Levita produces the movie alongside Paula van der Oest and Mark van Eeuwen; Caviar is the Belgian co-producer. They are joined by CoBo, Netherlands Film Fund, Flemish Audiovisual Fund, and the Belgian Tax Shelter.
“Directing this forgotten battle, with a Dutch and international cast, promises to be a real spectacle,” Heijningen said.
“In this film, we show war like never before in a Dutch movie,” de Levita added. “We also consciously chose a young cast. With this talented Dutch and international cast, we set the tone for a grand and compelling war drama, especially [for] a young generation [that] must experience what it was like to grow up in a war and the consequences of the choices young people made then.”