The Munich-based post-production and world sales group ARRI and VFX animation studio Trixter have launched a joint venture to co-produce and sell animation films internationally. The Icelandic project Ploe-You Never Fly Alone from the creators of Legends of Valhalla-Thor is their first pick up.
The family film about a young plover chick will be directed by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson (Undercurrent) for Iceland's GunHil animation studios. The company's co-MD Gunnar Karlsson will act as visual director and his partner in the company Hilmar Sigurdsson will produce with Haukur Sigurjonsson. GunHil's co-production agreement with Trixter and international sales agreement with ARRI was concluded at Lyon's Cartoon Movie and marks a major step forward in the financing of the €8m stereoscopic 3D project. Trixter is an established VFX and animation studio with offices in Munich, Berlin and Los Angeles, associated to films such as Iron Man 1,2,3 and The Avengers.
ARRI's Director of Sales and Acquisitions Moritz Hemminger says he has known GunHil's Sigurdsson since his time at Telepool Film Sales where he handled Legends of Valhalla-Thor as well as the Finnish animation films Niko 1 & 2, before joining ARRI in March 2012. "I know Hilmar delivers high quality animation which was confirmed by distributors worldwide and I have the international network to animation-driven distributors. ARRI Worldwide would be delighted to work with GunHil on future projects besides Ploe", said Hemminger. "There are plenty of interesting Nordic animation studios -such as Animae Vitae in Finland (Niko 1&2) and we're very open to any collaboration with other Nordic animation partners".
Production schedule on Ploe is scheduled to start in 2014 with animation work split between Iceland and Germany. ARRI World Sales will start pre-selling the project at Cannes' Marché du film in May.