DR Sales’ A Storm Foretold travels to Australia - drama remakes catch fire

Sitting at the DR booth, shared with SVT and Yle’s sale teams, DR Sales’ executive producer Kim Christiansen, in charge of documentaries and co-productions was ecstatic about the responses he got on his current documentary slate, “one of the strongest ever”.

Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s A Storm Foretold which world premiered at CPH:DOX in March has been acquired by arthouse-oriented distributor Madman in Australia. The film about Trump’s former advisor and Republican kingmaker Roger Stone and the tumultuous events that led to the riots at Capitol Hill in 2021, was co-financed by DR, SVT, NRK, VPRO, VRT, Ch8.

Madman plans to release A Storm Foretold in Australia prior to January 6, to coincide with the second anniversary of the US Capitol attack.

Winning Hearts and Minds in which Danish filmmakers Nagieb Khaja and Martin Tamm Andersen investigate allegations against the Afghan police of abuse in Helmand province, in the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan, is set to air on SVT and NRK, after its premiere on DR and BBC Four Storyville. The film was produced by Mette Heide for Plus Pictures.

The joint Nordic production effort Putin’s Shadow War (Skyggekrigen) in which Boris Benjamin Bertram investigates the Russian leader’s shadow war or undercover operations in western Europe, has now been sold to VPRO, VRT, RÚV, ZDF/Arte. The documentary was produced by DR, NRK, SVT and Yle.

Christiansen said he is also in negotiations with a major German/French broadcaster for them to co-produce the Norwegian film A New Kind of Wilderness by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen which was shown as a work in progress at the last Nordisk Panorama Forum.

“The German/French co-production could really strengthen the film in the final editing process and post production, aimed for the international market,” noted Christiansen who believes the film could become one of the major Festival hits of 2024. The real-life version of the hit fiction film Captain Fantastic was produced by A5 Film for NRK and DR.

On the drama side, Christiansen’s colleague Camilla Maria Saabye Krog, DR Sales’ scripted content executive and senior sales manager said the market for remakes is thriving, partly due to local broadcasters/streamers’ wish to diminish their risks. DR’s cult crime drama The Killing which was a major success last year as a remake in the Middle East on the streamer Shahid VIP, has just been optioned in India and a handful of other DR titles are in negotiations with various territories.