ASTANA— Comic Con Astana festival announced its first star headliners, Mads Mikkelsen, renowned for his roles in Hannibal, Doctor Strange, Casino Royale, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts. Photo credit: IMDB
According to Comic Con’s press service, one of Hollywood’s most in-demand European actors, A-list first-magnitude star Mikkelsen, is known to audiences for his roles as contradictory antagonists.
In 2020, he replaced Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
Mikkelsen’s filmography includes Nicolas Winding Refn’s criminal drama Pusher and its sequel, the biopics Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky and At Eternity’s Gate, the action-adventure films Clash of the Titans and The Three Musketeers, the sci-fi blockbuster Chaos Walking, the survival thriller Arctic and the historical drama The Promised Land (Bastarden).
Mads Mikkelsen. Photo credit: IMDB
Mikkelsen has cooperated with Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg. His performance in Vinterberg’s psychological drama The Hunt (Jagten) earned him the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He also starred in Vinterberg’s Another Round (Druk). This comedy-drama won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and garnered Mikkelsen awards at prestigious film festivals, including the European Film Academy and a BAFTA nomination.
Mikkelsen received the Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television for portraying Hannibal Lecter in the Hannibal series. He has accumulated nearly 40 awards from film festivals and awards ceremonies throughout his career.
In the video games world, using motion-capture techniques, Mikkelsen is noted for voicing and performing Clifford Unger, a character from Death Stranding. He also appeared in Rihanna’s Bitch Better Have My Money music video.
Among Mikkelsen’s upcoming is the Dust Bunny horror film, where he stars with Sigourney Weaver and David Dastamalchian. This project will be written and directed by Bryan Fuller, the creator of the Hannibal series.
Comic-Con Astana is a festival dedicated to the comics, cinema, video games, anime and other modern popular culture sectors. It will take place in Astana from July 25 to 28 at the EXPO International Exhibition Center.
The event will host international studios, producers, famous bloggers and professional cosplay artists. The festival program will include meetings and autograph sessions, premieres, sneak previews, presentations, a cosplay show, a graphic novels alley and performances by musical and dance groups.
The traditional element of the festival show program will be the international-scale cosplay contest, which will have a prize pool of 12 million tenge ($27,000). Cosplayers from 14 countries have applied for contest participation, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, Georgia, Montenegro, United Kingdom (UK), Armenia, Cyprus and Thailand.
