You've been aggressively buying into high-profile Nordic production companies over the last two years, the most recent one being Zentropa. Could you please explain your vision and plan?
When I came to Nordisk Film two years ago, I came to a company that I think needed a clear position in the marketplace. We were active in many different areas: film and TV production, distribution, play station, post-production, and this, across four countries, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The overall picture was of a very fragmented business and the level of trading in each segment and in each market was rather uneven. We needed a clear strategy.
Then for many years, Nordisk Film Distribution had been handling major content first for Fox, then Sony Pictures. But just before I came, the agreement with Sony stopped. All of a sudden, we had a lack of content in our distribution pipelines.
With film distribution, you need a constant flow of product otherwise you don't have the right profile for retail, media and people employed. You need a well-oiled machine working all the time. So I started thinking that where we could perhaps make a difference and have a clear profile in the market was by being simply Nordic, like our name.
Next to the US majors, we thought there would be room for a truly Nordic player that would also understand the nature of marketing local films. With a US property, you get the artwork and all marketing materials from the US. When you work with Nordic producers, you still have to develop the artwork, position the film etc.
We were already quite big in Denmark and Norway with our own company Nordisk Film. In the other markets, there were two things we could do: either employ a lot of people and start to build up a slate of productions, or we could get into partnership with creative people. Personally, I come from the music business. I had my own music company, sold it to EMI, and then managed EMI in the Nordic territories for many years. Based on the music model, my idea was to create partnerships with creative people and with those handling the talents, producers.
At Nordisk, we realized that there were many companies that would benefit from being part of a bigger machine, for instance to get cheaper media, and access to markets. So our strategy was to partner with locally-based production companies. We already had distribution agreements with some of them...
You mean output deals?
Yes, but output deals mean it's only for two-three years and you always have to renegotiate. I like to create long term relationships. So instead of having those distribution deals, we decided to have firm relationships with talents. We first bought 50% of Maipo in Norway. So between Nordisk, 4 ½ with whom we have an output deal and Maipo, we now have between eight and nine films per year in Norway, enough product in our slate to always be in the market.
In Finland, we already had a minority share in MRP Matila Röhr Production. Then we strengthened the relationship by acquiring another 10%, so we now own 30% of their company. We then acquired 50% of Solar Films. In Sweden, we acquired 50% of S/S Fladen.
By buying into Zentropa, you said your plan is to create a North European film studio...
Yes. That's what we hope to develop, and I'm getting great feedback from all our partners on this idea. Zentropa is now the strongest of all Nordic production companies. It will be a key element for the development of co-productions strategies between all our partners and their collaborations have already started: for instance S/S Fladen has a new project that will be co-produced by Zentropa's Berlin branch, and I'm now putting together Markus Selin (Solar Films) and Peter Aalbek Jensen (Zentropa) on Renny Harlin's Mannerheim project. We have the financial cushion to make bigger Nordic films that can travel across European borders, but we also want to find the right stories that can cross borders.
Will those films be in the English language?
It will depend on the stories. For instance we're adapting Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy best-sellers in the Swedish language. The Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev is directing the first movie The Girl With the Red Tattoo. It's a co-production between us and Yellow Bird.
We actually have the same vision as Nordisk Film & TV Fond. We want to increase the cooperation between creative talent and producers across the Nordic countries, although we're acting on a more commercial point of view.
Do you have other plans to expand your distribution and exhibition businesses?
We have our own distribution arms in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, and our international sales arms Trust and Nordisk now work together.
We do have cinemas in Denmark. Elsewhere, the market is very stable. You have SF in Sweden, Sanoma/Finnkino in Finland. In Norway, the municipalities are running the cinemas. We are a media company, not an exhibition company.