Baltasar Kormákur and Truenorth team up to double studio space in Iceland

The entrepreneurial-savvy producer/director Kormákur, working both on Icelandic and Hollywood projects for his outfit RVK Studios, has joined forces with the biggest servicing company in Iceland - Truenorth - to double the existing local studio space.

The alliance of the two Icelandic heavyweight players was announced by the City of Reykjavik, which has entered talks with RVK Studios and Truenorth, for them to build four new film studios of approximately 8,800m2 in total size, at the outskirts of the city centre, in Gufunes. According to the City Council, construction is envisaged to start in 2024.

The new film studios will come on top of Kormákur‘s existing facilities at the former industrial area, just outside the city centre, which opened in 2018. RVK Studios film complex hosts three studios covering around 6,500m2 (including stage 1 of around 3,500m2), equipment rental, screening rooms, editing suites, other service and production space, on top of RVK’s own offices covering 2,500m2.

Kormákur said a film prop, costume company will be added to the lot, as well as a new make-up studio, to be set up in partnership with Truenorth and seasoned make-up artist Asta Hafthorsdóttir (Touch, The Wave, Beforeigners).

The new partnership with Truenorth marks a new major step in Kormákur’s ambition to create a film village in Iceland, a dream he’s had for nearly a decade - see our story: Kormákur Plots Icelandic Film Studios

“My idea has never been to control everything but to build value and permanent studio infrastructure in Iceland, so that people can use our facilities over and over, instead of them climbing our glaciers, using our black sands and then running way. We want our industry to get stronger,” he told us.

For the director of Trapped, Everest and most recently Beast starring Idris Elba, Truenorth are the perfect partners. “We focus on production, Truenorth on servicing, but our companies do both. They also have their own smaller studios [2 sound stages of 6,000m2] in Fossa. This new studio venture will allow us to share costs, risks and spaces,” he said.

Truenorth’s CEO and founder Leifur B. Dagfinnsson added: “Our stages at Fossa are only five minutes away from RVK Studios at Gufunes, It’s closer than crossing the Warner Bros studio in L.A. or Pinewood Studios in the UK,” he noted. “When we heard about Reykjavik City’s second phase of development of the Gufunes area, we jumped on the occasion and got together with Baltasar. We pitched our idea to the City Council and they loved the idea of two major players joining forces. There is also a major sustainability factor, as we are re-developing the site at Gufunes, creating high-tech studios, and brand new facilities. We are serving the whole film business in Iceland,” he underscored.

Both Truenorth’s Fossa Studios and RVK Studios facilities hosted until April the shooting of HBO’s True Detective-Night Country, spread across over 8,000 m2 of studio space.

The 4^th season of the hit crime show which employed more than 350 Icelandic crew members was the first US studio production to benefit from the 35% filming incentive, upped last year from the existing 25% rebate. The 35% reimbursement of local production spend is available to bigger productions, filming over 30 days and investing over €2.5 million locally.

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This 35% incentive has been a total game-changer,” comments Truenorth’s producer and SVP of Film and TV Kristinn Thordarson. “Our industry relies on Icelandic projects, but people need to work all year round, and a mega project like True Detective for instance secured jobs for an eight-month period.”

Thordarson also stressed that the heavy workload on the HBO series also highlighted the lack of local manpower and necessity to train a new generation of skilled Icelandic cast & crew. “We are giving more opportunities to young people, to serve our booming industry,” said the Truenorth executive, who mentioned the government’s parallel focus on education, and the new BA film course at the University of the Arts, launched in 2022, complementing the existing film training from the Icelandic Film School and Reykjavik's Technical College.

According to Dagfinnsson, Truenorth will next serve as co-producer and service company on a major international project, to be directed by a Nordic filmmaker. Details will be unveiled in the coming weeks.

The company is also servicing several US productions and is involved in Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible-Dead Reckoning part 2, filming in Svalbard.

Meanwhile the prolific Kormákur is putting the final touches to his own feature as a director/producer - Touch, which just wrapped in Iceland, after filming in the UK and Japan. The film starring Egill Ólafsson, Pálmi Kormákur, Mitsuki Kimura (Kōki), Masahiro Motoki will be released by Focus Feature in the US, Sena in Iceland, with Universal covering the rest of the world. The feature co-produced by Good Chaos in the UK, was backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Kormákur said he has nearly 20 other projects on his slate-with the next one most likely to be a new Hollywood movie. “I can’t say much, but it is a fantastic project. I’m in the process of casting,” he said. Another major English-language project is lined up at RVK Studios’ facilities.