The Broken Circle Breakdown star Veerle Baetens joins the cast of Jan Verheyen's courtroom drama The Verdict (Het vonnis). Also confirmed are Johan Leysen (The American, The Spiral) and Koen De Bouw (Loft, The Memory of a Killer). Shooting starts on 11 February in Antwerp and Bruges a.o.
Baetens is to attend the Berlinale this year for the international première of Felix van Groeningen's Panorama Special-selected The Broken Circle Breakdown in which she plays Elise (28). She's madly in love with 36-year-old Flemish cowboy Didier (Johan Heldenbergh). Although in many respects they are as alike as day and night, somehow their characters match perfectly and the arrival of their baby, Maybelle, makes their happiness complete. Life is good until one day, fate intervenes, and they lose their daughter.
The actress also sings in the film. The Bluegrass heavy soundtrack became the best sold album of 2012 in Belgium, even beating the record-number of albums sold from the soundtrack of Titanic. Van Groeningen's previous feature The Misfortunates premiered at Cannes' Directors' Fortnight. The film's producer is Dirk Impens of Menuet, with The Match Factory handling international sales.
This spring, Baetens can also be seen as Margaret of Anjou in the upcoming 10-part BBC drama series The White Queen, which is set during the War of the Roses.
The Verdict is produced by Peter Bouckaert for Eyeworks Film & TV Drama. Jan Verheyen previously directed Dossier K., the follow up to Erik Van Looy's The Memory of a Killer.