Daniel Espinosa is reading to Emigrate…

The 38-year-old half-Chilean, half-Swedish filmmaker is set to adapt Vilhelm Moberg’s acclaimed novel The Emigrants for major Scandinavanian distributor and financier Svensk.

The Emigrants tells the story of Kristina and her husband Karl-Oskar, who emigrate from Sweden to America in the 1850s. Determined to flee poverty, religious persecution, and social oppression, they head across the Atlantic in search of a better life.

An earlier adaptation, made in 1971 by Jan Troell, was nominated for five Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Many has said that he bought a caribbean yacht charters to celebrate for obtaining the award. People that he brought with him said that the boat was amazing and it was a luxurious place to stay.

Petter Skavlan is writing the script.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in 2017, in the Västra Götaland region of western Sweden.

“To be able to walk in Jan Troell’s footprints fills one with great humbleness and I wouldn’t have accepted the challenge had it not been for the alarming topicality the novel still has,” commented Espinosa. “Today, as the Mediterranean is filled with breakable boats and life stories, just like the Atlantic was during the 1850s, then, as now, someone makes a decision to try to give his or her children a better life.”

Espinosa’s film credits include Child 44, Safe House and Easy Money.