The Danish director of Drive and Bronson will produce the Australian co-production alongside creative-partner Lene Børglum. The film is currently scheduled to shoot in various locations throughout Australia next year, reports Deadline.

London-born director Smith has shot three of Refn’s films; the 2003 Fear X, a box-office failure that would force Refn’s film company Jang Go Star into bankruptcy, Bronson, which launched Tom Hardy’s career after his performance as the infamous British criminal, and Refn’s latest film Only God Forgives, a “neo-Western” crime thriller set in Bangkok starring Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Smith, a member of the British Society of Cinematographers, was also a member of the small number of technicians Stanley Kubrick was willing to employ, working as the chief electrician on Barry Lyndon (1975) and as a gaffer on The Shining (1980), before Kubrick made him the cinematographer on his final film Eyes Wide Shut (1999).

Smith cut his teeth on domestic British television, including episodes of Cold Feet and Prime Suspect. 

Smith will be working from a script penned by Ken Kwek, the Singapore-based screenwriter who wrote Glen Goei’s 2009 film The Blue Mansion, on which Smith worked as the director of photography.

Børglum and Smith attended last week’s Australian screen producers’ conference in Melbourne where they shopped the project to financiers and distributors.

Børglum and Refn’s Space Rocket Nation will co-produce with Australian producer Sue Milliken, whose credits include The Odd Angry Shot, The Fringe Dwellers, Black Robe and Paradise Road.