With US star actor Samuel L. Jackson confirmed to play the President of the United States in Big Game, London-based sales outfit Altitude Film Entertainment was able to ink the first distribution deals with eOne for the UK and Ascot Elite for Germany.
Big Game is described as The Karate Kid meets Die Hard. It’s the story of a shy 13 year-old boy, Oskari, who has to take a test of manhood by spending one day and night alone in the wilderness of a vast local forest. Armed only with a bow and arrow, his task is to return with a prize to prove himself. The same night, Air Force One is shot down by terrorists and Oskari discovers the President of the United States in an escape pod. The fate of the most powerful man in the world lies in his hands.
Jalmari Helander will direct his own original script and Petri Jokiranta is producing under their joint Finnish Subzero banner. Will Clarke and Andy Mayson are co-producing for Altitude Film Entertainment in the UK, along with Jens Meurer of Egoli Tossell Film from Germany and UK scriptwriter Alex Garland serving as executive producer (28 Days Later). Production is set to start late summer 2013 in Finland and Germany.
In Cannes we spoke to producer Petri Jokiranta about the project.
Three years have passed since the release of Rare Exports. What happened in between and how did you put Big Game together?
PJ: We had long discussions with Jalmari about what to do after Rare Exports. The film travelled around the world even if it was in the Finnish language. We screened it in Hollywood in the summer 2010 to the major studios Fox, Paramount, Columbia. At the same time, US agents were running after Jalmari. He wasn’t too keen on making a film in Hollywood, preferring to stay in Europe. We had agreed to make a second film together.
Then we thought that the ideal would be to find an US agent who would be willing to help us develop our own project, instead of sending us scripts from America. We met Robert Newman from WME (William Morris Endeavor) and he agreed to help us.
From the very beginning, my strategy was to get a strong partner on board and to keep control of our project as much as possible. I met Will Clarke (former Optimum Releasing founder) who was about to establish his new company Altitude Film Entertainment. Jalmari pitched him his idea for Big Game. We ended up with a signed deal with them because our kind of filmmaking perfectly fits their line-up and they bring to us their expertise and great UK and US connections. They are also hands-on producers, like me.
What is the film’s budget?
PJ: It’s around $10 million. The financing will be a mix of private investment and public funds from Finland and Germany.
How did Samuel Jackson come on board?
PJ: Back in 2010, when we were in Hollywood, we started to connect with people. Jalmari had a very strong first draft for his script. We made a short list of possible names for the main role and Samuel L Jackson was one of them. He’s Jalmari all-time favourite actor. When the information came that Samuel had accepted the part, Jalmari said it was like winning the lottery! It was great to receive such a fast response. It has allowed us to pitch the project to financiers here in Cannes.
Will you have Finnish actors as well?
PJ: Like in Rare Exports, we will have the young Onni Tommila in the lead role. Then we will have other US and Finnish actors for secondary roles. Casting is underway.
How would you describe the story?
It’s an adventure story similar to Rare Exports, in the sense that you almost believe it really happened. The story is told through a 13 year-old boy. He helps rescue the president of the Unites States whose’ Air Force One plane has crashed in a forest. They have to fight terrorists and try to survive. The film will be packed with action scenes, but there is also the same black humour you find in Rare Exports.
How was it to approach big Hollywood players?
PJ: I was surprised by the openness of people in Hollywood, perhaps because more and more Scandinavians are making films over there. As a European, I still believe it’s better to get Hollywood names to work on our films than to let our directors go to Hollywood.