TrustNordisk is representing eight films at the Cannes market and plans to announce before the summer some of its major TV drama projects. We spoke to CEO Rikke Ennis.
What will be your main focus at the Cannes market?
Rikke Ennis: We have a line up with four films presented as pre-sales: Lars von Trier´s The House that Jack Built, the Norwegian films The 12th Man by Harald Zwart, The Ashlad and disaster film The Quake. Then we´re screening at the market the Swiss film The Divine Order, Danish films You Disappear by Peter Schønau Fog, Darkland by Fenar Ahmad and Icelandic horror thriller I Remember You.
We are interested in investing resources into new talent, which is why we also want to handle these films internationally.
Your promo-reel is often what enables you to close pre-sales. What films will be teased?
RE: We want to keep surprises, but as you can imagine some of the biggest films in our line-up will be on the promo-reel.
How many territories have been closed on The House that Jack Built?
RE: I would say half of the territories are gone already so buyers have been very aggressive in the pre-sales market. Lars von Trier is still going strong!
When will the film be delivered and what festival will you target?
RE: It will be in post-production this autumn. It´s quite a violent film so we haven´t decided yet on the festival strategy.
You have added South Korean actor Yu Ji-tae [seen in Park Chan-wook´s Old Boy) to the cast...
RE: Yes it will be interesting to see how this will affect the Korean market. Yu Ji-tae always wanted to work with Lars, so it made perfect sense.
Your line up consists more and more of genre films -small to high budget- from all Nordic countries. Is it simply too risky today to handle mid-range dramas?
RE: You could say that. The artistic and medium budget films with new directors have been extremely difficult to sell, which is why genre films of higher level are an easier sell.
Today distributors hesitate to invest time, P&A money and energy in medium budget dramas when the market is already overloaded. On one side you have the very low budget films with talents experimenting and not necessary expecting wide distribution, then on the other hand, the high-concept director and talent-driven films -even edgy films- that expect big audiences and sales around the world. These bigger films are those that we go for.
Indie distributors who don´ have the financial muscle to go after high concept film franchises, have had to change their business models and are increasingly turning to the booming TV drama sector
Last year when we spoke you said TrustNordisk´s strategy is to move away from pure sales and refocus on financial packaging, content creation -both film and TV drama. Where are you today?
RE: Things always take time! In February, we announced our intention to go more aggressively into TV drama and the re-structuring of our company. Susan Wendt is taking greater responsibility in our sales activities and in the daily administration of the sales department as Director of International Sales & Marketing. As CEO, my role is to focus more on content development and packaging, both for film and TV drama. We were pleased to receive very positive feedback from the biggest international players who saw our move as a natural and logical step as we have a fantastic brand associated to quality, and access to talents. It´s exciting to be in this new world and we already have very interesting projects in development.
What´s the update on Last Light co-produced with Brain Academy?
RE: It´s moving fast. I am exec producer so I will let Sydney Gallonde [from French company Make It Happen Studio) and Helena Danielsson [Brain Academy] make the announcement. But we have 2-3 other projects in that league with very interesting teams.
Our basic rule is to use Scandi ideas and talents and team up with international partners to bring our projects to the global market. Therefore our high premium dramas will be shot organically in different languages without losing the Scandinavian DNA.
As part of the Egmont family, how closely do you collaborate with Nordisk Film Production´s Head of Drama Tomas Radoor?
RE: Indeed we are family, and have monthly meetings with Nordisk Film where we discuss our entire slate. It´s a huge value to be part of a vertically-integrated group. But we don´t have to work with each other if it doesn´t make sense.
How will you structure your involvement and how many TV dramas do you intend to handle each year?
RE: we will enter projects at three different levels: at idea stage, with co-financing of the development alone or with a partner; during development as -co-producer or co-financier of projects already packaged, or in fewer cases, as pure international sales agent of a finished TV drama, where we will put MGs against worldwide distribution rights.
We might handle 3-4 TV dramas a year.
When will you have more concrete news and details about the TV projects?
RE: Most probably before the summer.