Cecilie Aspenes joins Norway’s Fantefilm

The Wave’s production house has just hired the Norwegian producer whose first project will be Teddybjørnens Jul, based on the celebrated author Alf Prøysen’s universe.

Aspenes has moved to Fantefilm from Miso Film Norway where she spent the last three years, working notably on the youth-oriented drama series Tainted and feature All Foreigners Keep Their Curtains Closed. She previously served as project manager at Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Aspenes joins Fantefilm’s Fiction production team comprising co-founder Martin Sundland, as well as Catrin Gundersen, Therese Bøhn, Jan Eirik Langøen and Hege Fjeldskår. Top screenwriters Lars Gudmestad (Headhunters, Next Summer) and Harald Rosenløw Eeg (The King’s Choice, The Wave) are part of the creative team.

Sundland said: “These are very challenging times for the whole industry. In Fantefilm, we still choose to look ahead. We have many interesting projects in the pipeline, and now we are staffing up. We have been in contact with Cecilie [Aspenes] for a while now, and when the time was right for both parties there was no doubt. Cecilie has an intriguing resume, and we are confident that she will be a very positive contribution to our team of producers. She will work with both existing projects and contribute to the development of new ones.”

Originally set up as a commercials company, Fantefilm has gradually made its mark in scripted content, first with low budget genre films (Cold Prey, Ragnarok), then with mega Scan-disaster films (The Wave, The Quake), next to family Christmas films based on Alf Prøysen’s universe.

After Merry Christmas Mr Andersen (Snekker Andersen og julenisser) and its sequel Forgotten Christmas (Snekker Andersen og julenisser-Den vesle bygda som glømte at det var jul), the third film based on an Alf Prøysen IP will be Teddybjørnens Jul (lit’ Teddy’s Christmas), adapted for the screen by Gudmestad and Rosenløw-Eeg from Prøysen’s song ‘Teddybjørnens vise’.

Andrea Eckerbom behind Forgotten Christmas (last year’s biggest local hit in Norwegian cinemas) will serve again as director. The film produced by Aspenes, Sundland, Gundersen and Bøhn, is set to start filming in the fall 2021.

Nordisk Film co-owned Fantefilm is currently in production with its third disaster film The North Sea reuniting The Quake’s director John Andreas Andersen and writer Rosenløw Eeg, joined by Gudmestad. Cast & crew for the mega-project will be announced very soon. TrustNordisk handles global sales.

Andersen’s next Fantefilm project Convoy set during WW2 has just received production support from the Norwegian Film Institute.

Meanwhile the company’s anticipated WW2 drama Betrayed (Den største forbrytelsen) starring Jakob Oftebro and Nikolai Cleve Broch, is due to premiere on December 25, 2020. The drama was just sold by TrustNordisk to Mediawan for France, Tohokushinsha Film for Japan, and Cinemania Group for Albania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Macedonia.