Could you remind us what Filmfabrikken stands for?
With Zentropa, we've created Filmfabrikken, a ‘Danish Miramax'. The Miramax theory was to find a little movie with sharpness, new thoughts and make it big. At Filmfabrikken, our idea is to try to create US independent movies in Denmark, small budget movies by new talents, like those launched at Sundance.
Zentropa has also launched the Brilleaben Fond to support small budget innovative films...
Yes but this is a European independent idea: small films for small audiences. Our cooperation between Zentropa and Grasten is small movies for big audiences. It's definitely influenced by US independent filmmaking such as Juno, Little Miss Sunshine etc. These are small movies, for the most made by newcomers, with unknown actors, and they are huge successes.
Yes but scripts are solidly built and remain the backbone of the films...
Yes, because US independents think that audiences don't care about directors, actors. All they want to see is a good story. In Denmark we've had this problem for many years where producers, institutions like the Danish Film Institute thought that the audience only wanted to see expensive films by well-known directors, with famous actors. What we say is the audience don't care! They want to see a good movie and that's it!
That's why we've picked this film Eye for Eye which only cost this young man Kaywan Mohsen around DKK 100,000 to make (around €13,400). We helped him finish it. So the official budget is now DKK 1.6m (€214,000). We're still releasing it in 75 cinemas and using €254,000 in marketing, a budget used for blockbuster films like Batman, James Bond etc.
How were you able to convince so many exhibitors to take on this small movie?
There was no problem, because they wanted our next family film Anja & Viktor on September 12! Last year, we had Rich Kids which also worked like a kind of US independent film. It was made for around €1m with unknown actors. We booked it in 80 cinemas. It did 120,000 admissions and it's close to selling 80,000 DVDs. So the exhibitors didn't dare to say no on Eye for Eye. Nevertheless, the gamble is high on this movie: it could be a flop or a big smash. But as it is a low budget film, you can take a lot of chances on marketing and use a big release. The risk is fair.
Elsewhere in Europe, the same thing is happening in France with the comedy Welcome to the land of Shtis. No one thought it would explode the way it did. I think high box office grosses can be achieved if people dare to do what we're doing now. There is a lot of talent out there worth betting on.
What kind of campaign did you do for Eye for Eye?
We started at Christmas with double page ads in newspapers. A month later, we launched a midnight preview with TV spots, big ads. Now we're planning a huge TV and Internet campaign. Kaywan the filmmaker is travelling to 30-40 cities to promote his film.
Eye for Eye is rather controversial, about violence and integration. In every city that we visit, we organise discussions at schools, with police officers, with politicians covered by the press. This little film has had big articles in every big Danish newspaper now. We even had three minutes in the news on primetime television. We're giving a constant flow of information to the media, telling them everything we do to build their interest.
What other films are you producing at Filmfabrikken?
Christian E. Christiansen (Råzone) who directed this year's Oscar nominated short film At Night (Om Natten) is developing for us a feature length version of his short film called You & Me. We're starting the shooting now and the film will go out on 100 prints on August 30, 2008. The film will use the same actors as in At Night: Julie R. Ølgaard, Laura Christensen and Neel Rønholt. It will be a Danish love story, a ‘kleenex movie'. We have one of the most popular Danish singers, Natasha, who will make the title song: You & Me. It hasn't been released yet. The music will be crucial for the marketing campaign. As the film will be released during the summer, when all young kids are in holiday, this will be the hit song and we'll put it out on mobile phones, I-pods etc. The film will cost only €1.2m.
The film will be produced by Zentropa's Louisa Vesth (who produced At Night). The DFI and DR are in as well.
At Regner Grasten Film, we've also started shooting the fifth Anja & Viktor which will be ready next September. It will be released in 130 cinemas through Nordisk Film.