Thomas Vinterberg and Pål Øie are some of the Scandinavian directors working for the French/US major.

Actively looking for new talent in genre film across Europe, Ryan Wickers, Vice-President, Production and Development at EuropaCorp Films USA (US branch of Luc Besson’s European film studio) tells nordicfilmandtvnews.com about his company’s strategy and ambitions.

Where does your interest in genre film come from?
Ryan Wickers: I’m specifically interested in European genre films. As EuropaCorp is a French company, we can trigger subsidies out of France if our movies qualify to being European productions. So at our LA office, we try to hire the best European directors to work on our English-language genre movies.

An interesting aspect of our company is that the majority of our movies are based on Luc Besson’s original ideas. That’s all we’ve been focusing on for the past three years, developing those ideas into finished films.

What is EuropaCorp Films USA’s strategy?
RW: Our intention is to make eight movies a year and to distribute them in the US and internationally. We are perhaps the only European company to self distribute in France and in the US. 

Concretely at what stage do you come on board a film project?
RW: We are a small development team and are mainly focusing on finished scripts for the time being. Once I find a script that I like, I recommend it to Lisa [Ellzey, president of EuropaCorp US office] and we speak to Luc or CEO Marc Shmuger. It’s a very streamlined process.

Do you consider original material?
RW: For the past few years, we’ve been focusing on Luc’s ideas, but these ideas are now prepping, shooting, or posting. As we have a distribution pipeline to fill, we are now looking into acquiring fresh material. We have an acquisitions team that looks at a larger spectrum of projects, outside genre movies, with big budgets and actors, suitable for 2,000 screen wide releases.

The majority of our films are financed through foreign sales, so we’re looking for friendly concepts for foreign sales. However action, thriller, sci-fi remain our bread and butter. Personally I’d love to find more horror, fantasy, crime. 

Do filmmakers that you scout have to have a track record? 
RW: We believe that talent is talent. EuropaCorp is therefore more open to giving lesser known directors chances than any other traditional US studio, in my experience. We’ve hired almost 20 European directors in the past three years. A number of them had made their debut in their local language, and we’ve hired them to do their second feature in English with a significant budget.

Deadline reported that Thomas Vinterberg is set to direct for EuropaCorp the survival drama Kursk, based on the true story of the Kursk submarine disaster that sunk in the Barents Sea in 2000. Can you confirm?
RW: Yes that’s correct. We’ve hired writer Bob Rodat [Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot], Thomas Vinterberg, and key cast Colin Firth and Matthias Schoenaerts.  Luc and Lisa [Ellzey] are producing. We are in pre-production and casting the other roles. 

Have you signed with a Nordic genre filmmaker recently?
RW: Yes the Norwegian director Pål Øie who did Villmark Asylum is doing our film Underground right now. We have hired him, his producer Einar Loftesnes and writing partner Kjersti Helen Rasmussen. The horror/thriller written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski is based on one of Luc’s original ideas. It’s the story of a New York detective who discovers an underground world beneath the city as he investigates the cases of missing people. 

We’re planning to film in Hungary and in Belgium. EuropaCorp will release it in the US, France and will sell worldwide rights. Hopefully it will be released late 2017.

What types of budget do you work with?
RW: Underground has a $5-7 million budget, that is on the lower end for EuropaCorp. Our sweet spot is $10 to $40 million.

Are you looking for a US or European cast for Underground? 
RW: Not necessarily a specific nationality but it is always more attractive and beneficial for us if we have Europeans.  

You were in Haugesund recently as tutor for the Nordic Genre Boost initiative. What are your views on the projects that were pitched?
RW: I was impressed mostly by the commercially-oriented high concepts, which is exactly what we’re looking for. Usually European films are dramas, so being able to see pitches of horror, action, thriller, sci-fi was very refreshing. 

When I started at EuropaCorp and they said you can only pick European directors, I was hesitant. Now it’s my favourite aspect of the job!