The Daily Roxette

Roxette's forthcoming album title has been changed to Travelling. Per has just outed the new sleeve on Facebook. The album is to be released March 26, according to Marie Dimberg, Roxette's manager.

Today is the day that Per Gessle turns 53 years young! 

I'm sure all our readers will join us in wishing him all the best on his special day.

Happy Birthday, Mr G, from the TDR team - Hope you have a great day!

It's not just Per Gessle who's been involved in a some sort of movie soundtrack project. This time, it's Helena Josefsson – who's been on tour with Roxette this past year – whose name is in the news.

"My Own Worst Enemy," a duet sung by Helena and Robert Petersson, lead singer of the Swedish alt-rock group Takida, will be the title song for "Hamilton – In the Interest of the Nation," the continuation of a series of "Hamilton" movies based on the bestselling novels of author Jan Guillou. The film will have its premiere Monday in Stockholm.

With dialogue mostly in English, the three upcoming films, like the one before it that with additional footage was turned into a television mini-series, are in the political intrigue/action thriller genre. They will be distributed by SF International (Svensk Filmindusti) and, after their theatrical run, appear on TV4 in Sweden and Canal+ in Europe.

Guillou is the same author who wrote the novels behind the "Arn" series of films, for which Marie Fredriksson recorded "Där du andas (Where You Breathe)" as a title song.

There's one more connection as well. Peter Stormare, who was cast as the landlord who is mistakenly killed in the upcoming film "Small Apartments" for which Per Gessle has supplied the soundtrack songs (see article below), played the role of Carl Hamilton in the first film.

As Per Gessle revealed today on Facebook, the songs he's recently written and recorded for a "soundtrack" are for Jonas Åkerlund's new movie "Small Apartments." Read the message by the man himself:

Yes Box Alright! I've done the soundtrack, based on the Son of a Plumber vibe, for Jonas Åkerlund's new movie "Small Apartments". The music has been recorded at the AGM Studio and as expected the mighty Mr Lundquist & Mr Ofwerman have been the cornerstones. The film? Well, it's a "dark comedy" (based on the S.A. novel) starring Matt Lucas, Billy Crystal, James Caan and Peter Stormare in the leading parts. And yes, it's a wonderful movie. And yes, there will be a soundtrack. And yes, we have to release it on vinyl as well. I'm really proud to be part of this. Cheers, P. (P.S. Jonas is God.)

The novel this movie is based upon was written by American writer Chris Millis in 2001. He has adapted the screenplay and is the executive producer of the movie. Here's the blurb for the book:

Small Apartments is the offbeat tale of an obese, slovenly peeping tom, his odd brother, his pothead neighbour, and their quest to hide the body of an unfortunate landlord. The story is accented along the way by murder, strange fingernail collections and the occasional blast from a treasured alphorn.

Behind-the-scenes photos of the shooting of the movie are available on Chris Millis' website and the complete cast is available on the Internet Movie Database.

Another soundtrack Per Gessle has contributed to in the past was that for the 2008 movie "Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In)". In this movie, you can hear parts of the still officially unreleased song "Kvar i min bil (Left in My Car)".