Mads Mikkelsen To Star In Father-Daughter Road Trip Netflix Movie From Alexander Payne

Netflix has snapped up another filmmaker who is an awards season favorite. Alexander Payne, who has won two writing Oscars for The Descendants and Sideways, has struck a deal with Netflix to direct an untitled road trip movie starring Mads Mikkelsen. Payne is just the latest high-profile filmmaker to join the ranks of the streaming giant as it goes for the gold statuette.

Deadline broke the news that Netflix has made a deal to finance and release the next film by Alexander Payne. The untitled film is set to star Mads Mikkelsen, who is finalizing his deal, as a Danish journalist who "takes a road-trip with his teenage daughter across the U.S. as he writes a story for a newspaper."

The film will be Payne's follow-up to 2017's Downsizing, a sci-fi dramedy starring Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig that was a rare misfire for the director, whose acclaimed filmography includes Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt, and Nebraska. But with Netflix backing him and a fantastic star like Mikkelsen leading the Alexander Payne Netflix movie cast, perhaps the director can get another hit — and the streaming giant can, in turn, get another awards contender.

The untitled film will begin shooting next month in Sweden, Denmark, and the U.S. Netflix beat out several distributors in the bid for Payne's film, which was written by Erlend Loe (Nord) and will be produced by Bona Fide Productions' Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, and Lizette Jonjic of Zentropa Productions. Payne has a few other projects in the works, including the dark satirical comedy The Menu starring Emma Stone and Ralph Fiennes. However, Deadline confirms that this Netflix film will be next.

Netflix has been eager to win itself an Oscar for the past few years, last year backing Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, which won three Oscars including Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film, but the prestigious Best Picture statuette continues to elude the streaming giant. Payne isn't a guaranteed Oscar win for Netflix, but it seems like the company is fond of stacking its odds, with this Martin Scorsese's The Irishman and Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story earning buzz this year.