The 15 year old company headed by Finn Gjerdrum (pictured) and Stein B. Kvae is currently enjoying the theatrical run of Moland’s Berlin competition title In Order of Disappearance that opened at number five in Norway on February 21st with over 10,000 admissions in three days despite stiff competition from the final of the Olympic Games. “We’re very pleased with the film’s opening results that are higher than for Moland’s previous film A Somewhat Gentleman”, said Gjerdrum who is already discussing with the director and Danish scriptwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson a third possible feature collaboration. “We’re pitching some ideas for new stuff and hopefully we’ll start developing a new movie quite soon”.
Moland is with Erik Poppe two strong names in Paradox’s stable of directors that the company has contributed to building on a local level before launching them on the international market. The two directors’ current films In Order of Disappearance and A Thousand Times Good Night have attracted massive interest from foreign buyers and will open respectively in over 40 and 30 territories each.
Poppe’s next project, the WW2 drama The King’s Choice (Kongens nei) starring Jesper Christensen as King Haakon and Anders Baasmo Christiansen as Crown Prince Olav is set to start filming in April with a second shooting period in 2015. The €6.4 million project supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond is co-produced by Zentropa Sweden, Newgrange Pictures in Ireland and Proton Cinema in Hungary, Paradox’s usual European partners. Other major projects include the Viking epic Birkebeinerne to be directed by Nils Gaup and a couple of kids movies, Paradox’s other specialty. A third instalment in the successful Knerten (Twigson) franchise is in the works as well as Mrs Pepperpot (Teskjekjerringa) a screen adaptation of the favourite fictional character from Alf Prøysen’s children’s books that should go into production in 2015. “We want to stay faithful to Scandinavia’s long tradition of children’s movies, plus kids fare is also a great platform to break new writers and directors,” notes Gjerdrum.
The next step for Paradox will be to enter the successful market of Scandinavian TV drama. “So far we’ve been busy producing movies. Now it’s also time to focus on TV drama,” said Gerdrum, currently looking at various projects and waiting to have solid options to make an official announcement.