After Tommy Wirkola’s The Trip, 74 Entertainment turns to Spermageddon

French Charades has picked up world rights outside the Nordic region, to be handled by Nordisk Film.

Based on an original idea by genre specialist Wirkola (Hansel & Gretel-Witch Hunters, Dead Snow), the humorous Spermageddon is produced by 74 Entertainment’s partners Kjetil Omberg and Jørgen Storm Rosenberg, both former ‘Producers on the Move’ in Cannes and Inside Pictures alumni.

“It’s an animated feature in the vein of South Park, or the Danish animated Checkered Ninja, targeting elder kids and adults,” said Omberg.

Written by Wirkola together with his long-time creative partners Jesper Sundnes and Vegar Hoel who often share acting, writing or directing credits to each other’s films, Spermageddon is set to “explore the beginning of life through cute drawings, somewhat mature content and very grown up language,” according to a statement.

The film will follow both the emerging love story of two teenagers who are having sex for the first time, and the inner body adventure of the semen as it tries to reach the golden goal-the egg, after accidentally first ending up in the wrong place.

“It’s fantastic to finally be able to tell this glorious story of magnificent scope, all set in the world of the minuscule…the original origin-story you might say,” said Wirkola.

According to Omberg, animation work on the €3m film will start in the fall, under the aegis of Sivertsen (Louis & Lucas-The Big Cheese Race, Captain Sabertooth and the Magic Diamond). The anticipated premiere is set for 2023.

The Trip with NETFLIX
Meanwhile Wirkola’s current film produced by 74 Entertainment - the action thriller The Trip (I onde dager) starring Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie will be released in Norway July 30 by SF Studios which holds theatrical rights in the Nordics.

Netflix will launch it in the rest of the world, outside France, to be handled by The Jokers, and German-speaking territories, handled by Square One Entertainment.

“Basically, we closed a negative pick up with Netflix who came on board before the film was shot and after XYZ Films had started pre-selling it,” said Omberg.

“Our ambition is to make Nordic and English-language movies for a wide audience, with cinemas as prime destination. But in today’s streaming world, we’re forced to perform a balancing act between traditional distribution and platforms,” said Storm Rosenberg who is pleased to have secured a theatrical window in Norway before the film’s launch on Netflix. It’s been exciting to try something new distribution-wise,” he adds.

Both Storm Rosenberg and Omberg say The Trip was a challenging experience, between Covid-19, the pressure to keep shooting under schedule due to Noomi Rapace and Wirkola’s other commitments in Hollywood, and not least Wirkola and Hennie’s life partners who were due to give birth in the middle of important shooting days. “We had six weeks prep and a 6-week shoot-then we sent everyone to the countryside as Norway shut down in November [2020] just when we finished filming. We took a big risk but we’re super happy with the movie,” said Storm Rosenberg.

74 Entertainment’s other upcoming project is the female road trip Jentetur directed by Katarina Launing (Magic Silver, The Dragon Girl). Janne Formoe (Next Summer, Dag), Line Verdal (Ragnarok, Home for Christmas) and Ida Ursin-Holm (Amundsen) co-star in the comedy about jealousy, confusing family ties and the early onset of mid-life crisis.

The film is due to premiere in February 2022 via Nordisk Film, which signed a three-year output deal with 74 Entertainment in 2019.