Potalivo and Mosholft both boast impressive credentials.

Christian Potalivo was twice Oscar nominated with the short films The Pig (2009) and The New Tenants (2010) under his time at M&M Productions, then produced for Miso Film May el Toukhy’s Long Story Short, the Iqbal kids franchise, three seasons of Dicte and The Rain among others, co-created with Esben Toft Jacobsen and Mosholt.

Mosholt was episodic writer on Borgen, Follow the Money, head-writer on Rita, co-creator/co-writer of The Rain, and on the film side he co-wrote Hold Me Tight and the celebrated animated films The Great Bear and Beyond Beyond.

The Danish duo is currently working on a new sci-fi TV show for Netflix: Chosen, produced by their new Copenhagen-based outfit Tall & Small. The six-part series centres on Emma (17) whose reality is suddenly turned upside down when everything she thought she knew turns out to be wrong, and she realises that the world is not as safe and blissful as she thought. The series starts filming soon.

Potalivo and Mosholt open up about their inspirations and ambitions with Tall & Small.

What triggered your desire to set up Tall & Small?
Jannik Tai Mosholt: We’ve been friends a long time. After having worked four years together on The Rain, it felt it was the right time to do it, to get the freedom to make our own decisions and take control of our projects.

Christian Potalivo: We went to film school [The National Film School of Denmark] together. Being best friends, we were afraid that working together would alter our friendship, but on the contrary our close collaboration on The Rain strengthened our relationship. I have worked as a producer for 20 years for other companies - M&M Productions, then Miso Film and Jannik has worked as freelance writer a long time. It felt right to team up.

Jannik you seem to be drawn to kids and young adult stories. Where does this interest come from?
JTM: I’m often joking that story-wise, I’m slowly moving from kids content to young adults and at 50 I might be able to write about adults. I just find that when you’re a child and young adult, everything is life or death - everything feels so big and important. With The Rain, beyond the thriller, we portray stepping into adulthood and the big questions that come with it - who am I, what am I going to do... Those questions are still what interests me the most.

You’ve said in a statement that working with Netflix on The Rain was an opportunity to tell stories in a genre rarely experienced in Scandinavia. Can you expand?
JTM: When Esben Toft [Jacobsen- director of The Great Bear], Christian and I started to discuss ideas for The Rain, that was 9-10 years ago. We loved that idea, but put it in the drawer because we felt it would be too ‘niche’ in Denmark. Then when we heard Netflix was looking for a show, we felt that would be the place to do it as they look at content from a global perspective. We were pleased that they commissioned it and that there are possibilities for that genre in Denmark as well.

CP: Jannik and I are children of a generation who grew up on genre movies, but as he said, creating genre content in Denmark was too niche and risky for the traditional production model, with a small YA target audience in Denmark. With platforms, the world is your audience and stories are transcending borders. Stories for young adults dealing with feelings, existential questions, resonate with youngsters all around the world. What was viewed as niche ten years ago is broadly accepted today and finds an audience everywhere.  

What are your ambitions with Tall & Small? Will you work across different formats and genres?
CP: With Tall & Small, we feel we have many creative roads to explore. For now, we’re focusing on TV drama with Chosen, but we have other projects in development including feature films and animation. We’re very close to Esben [Toft Jacobsen] with whom we went to film school, and hope to work with him again. We will embrace all formats, genre and languages. It all boils down to the story.

JTM: We feel privileged to do what we do. Our idea of success is to be able to do more. If we’re able to do something new, something better, and keep working, doing what we love, that’s all we want.

Regarding Chosen, the story seems to deal with truth and people’s perception of it. It seems to be all the more relevant today when conspiracy theories circulate on social media,with people doubting the US presidential election results, or the reality of Covid-19…
JTM: We find it interesting to bring to the forefront topical stories and issues out there, or that we’ve known from our upbringing, and see them through another lens, sci-fi for instance, using genre conventions to uplift the story. It opens up the narrative and universe in so many ways.

CP: With genre, we can talk about things that are very relatable emotionally, and things that people can identify with from their own upbringing, about identity, seeking truth etc. Because we create genre universes around stories, we don’t necessarily have to be so accurate about a particular topic and can dissolve it into a story that just boils down to what happens to us as characters and humans.

What feeds your own creativity?
JTM: It depends on the days! We both grew up on George Lucas, Steven Spielberg’s films and always seem to go back to them for inspiration. Then Aliens, Blade Runner are also in the back of our minds. We became friends at film school because the other students were talking about French New Wave, Russian masters. But to me, there was nothing before First Blood [1982]. I grew up on genre movies.

When will you start shooting Chosen?
CP: We’ll start shooting soon and will make an announcement then about cast & crew.

You’ve launched your company in the middle of Covid-19 and The Rain deals with a virus…You don’t seem intimidated by the pandemic…  
CP: We didn’t see it coming! It seems perhaps absurd to launch a company in the middle of the pandemic and be able to go into production. Every day, when we have Covid-related issues, we know our problems are petty compared to what’s happening in the world and the way people are suffering.

From a Danish viewpoint, I also take pride in seeing how many people are going to the cinemas to watch Danish films despite the Covid restrictions. Of course, there isn’t the same competition on screens, but also in these testing times, people perhaps need to see stories they can relate to, and watch human stories that we’ve always been so good at creating in Scandinavia. It gives people comfort and happiness.

With our shows we try to do the same - create top quality entertainment for a wide audience - wherever they are.

Are you inspired by the creativity in the rest of the Nordics?
JTM: Over the last 4-5 years, we’ve discussed a lot what Norway does with genre movies - Trollhunters, The Wave etc. It’s been an inspiration, and in Sweden, Let the Right One In was brilliant as well. All over Scandinavia there is a wave of different genres, different ways of telling stories.

What else are you working on? Will you bring stories to Scandinavian broadcasters or distributors?
CP: We’re currently involved in another Danish series for Netflix - Elves. It’s based on our idea, but created and written by Stefan Jaworski [Those Who Kill]. The series stayed at Miso Film when we set up our company, and we’re still involved as executive producers. They are shooting right now and it looks amazing.

For each story, we try to find the best home, and of course, a Scandinavian home is a natural place to be, but again, the world is wide open with the streamers.