HERMAN KOCH TO ATTEND BERLINALE FOR PREMIERE OF AMERICAN FILM ADAPTATION OF THE DINNER
Bestselling author Herman Koch will travel with a Dutch delegation to the 67th Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival that will be held from 9 to 19 February. The American film adaptation of The Dinner, starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall and Chloë Sevigny, will have its world premiere in the main programme. The Dinner is a contender for the Golden Bear, which will be awarded by an international jury chaired by Paul Verhoeven.
The Dinner was originally published in 2009. The rights to the novel have been bought by almost fifty countries and it has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. Koch’s novel received a near universally positive reception, including from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and The New York Times Book Review. Stephen King recently praised Herman Koch’s work.
Koch’s most recent novel, The Ditch, sold more than 100,000 copies in its first three months. Booksellers and readers are therefore looking forward to Easy Living, written by Koch as this year’s Dutch Book Week gift. It will be published this month in a large print run by the CPNB (Collective Promotion for the Dutch Book) to mark Book Week 2017 (25 March – 2 April).
The Dinner is the third film adaptation of Koch’s novel. The Dutch and Italian versions received mixed reviews. Herman Koch is curious to see the new movie: ‘I haven’t had any involvement in it. When the movie was being filmed the producer invited me to visit the set, but I felt like I’d only be getting in the way. I know absolutely nothing about it, so I’m looking forward to being surprised in Berlin.’ The world premiere of The Dinner will be on Friday 10 February at 7pm, including red carpet and black tie. In early May the film will be released in the US; other countries will follow later this year.
