The film was directed by Morten Tyldum and stars Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnøve Macody Lund.

Hennie portrays the successful but insecure corporate recruiter Roger Brown who lives a double life as an art thief to fund his lavish lifestyle.

[3] Roger Brown, Norway's most successful headhunter, supports his lavish lifestyle by stealing paintings with his partner, Ove.

Roger's wife and art gallery owner, Diana, introduces him to Clas Greve, a former executive for GPS tech company HOTE.

Roger swaps the Rubens painting with the counterfeit, but discovers Diana's cell phone beside Clas' bed, implying an affair.

Playing dead until Clas leaves, Roger shaves his head and hides his hair on an officer's corpse, then swaps clothes with a detective's disfigured body to fake his death.

The next morning, Roger enters a morgue to retrieve the remaining evidence linking him to the murders (his cut hair), while Diana contacts Clas to ostensibly resume their affair.

The footage, combined with evidence planted by Roger, suggests that Ove and Clas were art thieves who killed the farmer, Lotte, and finally each other.

The police ignore the inconsistencies (Ove's and Clas' times of death not matching) because leaving the case unsolved would harm star detective Brede Sperre's growing reputation.

The Swedish production company Yellow Bird acquired the film rights to Jo Nesbø's 2008 novel Headhunters in 2009.

[12] In its opening weekend in Norway, the film earned $1,789,809, good enough to top the Norwegian box office rankings.

It also earned an additional $10,085,388 in other territories and $1,200,010 in the United States for a worldwide box office gross of $18,962,444 against a production budget of $3,636,887, making it the highest-grossing film in Norwegian cinema history.

The consensus reads: "Grisly, twisty, and darkly comic, Headhunters is an exhilaratingly oddball take on familiar thriller elements".

Unlike too many thrillers that depend on stunts, special effects, and the Queasy cam, this one devises a plot where it matters what happens.

The die throw of five was issued by VG,[17] Dagbladet,[18] Aftenposten,[19] Bergens Tidende,[20] Bergensavisen,[21] Stavanger Aftenblad,[22] Dagsavisen,[23] Fædrelandsvennen,[24] Haugesunds Avis[25] and Hamar Arbeiderblad.