Kaiken Entertainment is the new company founded by Mikael Hed, former Rovio Entertainment CEO and executive producer of The Angry Birds Movie.

The new entertainment company with offices in Espoo, Vancouver and Los Angeles, has just acquired Finnish group Rovio’s TV animation studios in Vancouver and its book publishing business, as well as non-Angry-Birds properties.
Besides Mikael Hed, other key executive who have joined Kaiken Entertainment include Rovio producer Ulla Junell, appointed Head of Animation and President of Kaiken Canada, producer Joonas Rissanen, new Creative Director, and Laura Nevanlinna, Kaiken Publishing CEO who becomes Head of Franchise & Portfolio Development. Kaiken’s Advisory Board comprises Steve Pegram, former Rovio, Aardman and DreamWorks senior executive and Tommy Korpinen, Rovio’s President of Animation.

Kaiken will identify, develop and produce original IPs with a potential to build multimedia franchises for cinemas, television, digital platforms and publishing. Ulla Junell told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “Storytelling is key at Kaiken. We plan to partner all projects at our TV and film studio with Kaiken Publishing. Our team has strong experience in 360° brand building and we believe that the best way to reach our audience is to have properties available through various multimedia including digital products. The right platforms for each project will be considered case by case, ensuring compelling storytelling is always at the centre of what we do.”
“Kaiken Entertainment, and more specifically Kaiken Animation, is currently working with a wide portfolio of properties that span from pre-school to young adult, including both 2D animation, CG animation and live action projects,” continues Junell.

European ties
Asked if the productions would involve Nordic - and European-financing partners - Junell said: “we made the decision that our company is headquartered in Finland. Kaiken Entertainment is a Finnish-based company even though we have an affiliate company in North America. Our financing model will be varied for each production, but we intend to keep close relationships with European co-producers, distributors, and financiers. We have half of our employees in Helsinki, Finland and are continuing to split our production work between our Helsinki and Vancouver studios.”

Kaiken’s first animation project produced with Rovio is the 30X2’30 TV series Angry Birds Blues set to premiere today [Friday 10] on Rovio’s Toons TV. The series features Bluebirds triplets Jay, Jake and Jim who were introduced in The Angry Birds Movie (see trailer CLICK HERE)

Four literary brands to be developed for the screens include:

  • The Storm Sisters series written by Mintie Das, about a group of adventurous five young girls. The first book The Sinking World was shortlisted for the “Books at Berlinale” 2015 and has now launched in eight countries including Germany, US & UK. 
  • The Freya series about an ancient god in a modern world written by Matthew Laurence has been released by MacMillan in all major English-speaking territories.
  • The Mascoteers series about the 13 year-old Merge and her underemployed mascots was shortlisted for the Books at Berlinale 2017. 
  • The Bird Circle is a trilogy by Elina Rouhiainen about a young girl with unique ability to see people’s memories in the shape of birds. The young audience series mixes urban fantasy with Nordic noir.

The Angry Birds Movie released in May 2016 grossed more than $350 million worldwide and was the most successful non-national Nordic film in Sweden and Norway in 2016. The Finnish film was number two at Finland’s Top Ten 2016 with 336,373 admissions. The sequel is currently in development.