The leading indie production company will work closely with eight international partners to create high-end films & TV series, with Fremantle set to collaborate on selected TV dramas.

Besides Maipo Film, the new label The Creatives comprises France’s production and distribution outfit Haut et Court (No Man’s Land, The Last Panthers, The Class), behind the initiative, as well as Unité (Mythomaniac, The Braves), the Netherlands' Lemming Film (Oscar entry Do not Hesitate), Germany’s Razor Film (Waltz with Bashir, Quo Vadis, Aida?), Belgium’s Versus Production (Lost Bullet), Israel’s Spiro (When Heroes Fly, No Man’s Land), the UK’s Good Chaos (co-producer of Ruben Öslund’s upcoming Triangle of Sadness) and the US’ Masha (Absentia).

Between them, the partners have over 100 films and series in various stages of development or production. Under a separate three year-agreement announcement on Monday, together with the launch of The Creative, Bertelsmann-owned Fremantle will help the nine partners develop and fund premium drama series for the global market. As such, they will work closely with Christian Vesper, Fremantle’s President of Global Drama and his team.

In a joint statement, The Creatives said each company will keep their own identity, culture, idiosyncrasies, but will now cooperate, exchange ideas, develop, and eventually produce together. “In return, as a response to an exponential growth of the market, we offer writers and directors a home of a significant scale where they will benefit from a global approach,” explain the partners. “At the same time, they retain control of their stories and keep hold of rights, as much as possible. In this hugely competitive world, we all believe it is the only way to swim upstream and stay ahead of our competitors,” added the producers.

Commenting on her partnership in The Creatives, Maipo Film’s CEO and producer Synnøve Hørsdal told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “For me the essence of this partnership was really to work with like-minded producers and to be stronger as a group.“ She said the loose collaboration between The Creatives partners will be on a project by project basis, and similarly, the agreement with Fremantle which stemmed for a wish to connect with a major distribution partner, will be on specific TV projects, either in local or English-language.

Hørsdal said all partners have had some form of collaboration in the past. Maipo Film for instance co-produced Lemming Film’s children & YA vampire series Heirs of the Night 1&2.

The seasoned Norwegian producer said several film and TV projects in development are currently being discussed by The Creatives.

Set up in 2000 and partly owned by Egmont Group, Maipo Film is one of Norway’s most established production outfits, active almost equally across film & TV drama, with a strong experience notably in family films (Clue-The Maltese Mystery, the Ash Lad franchise).

Among award-winning productions are the Sundance winning film Happy, Happy (2011), Gullruten 2019 multi-awarded series State of Happiness and Canneseries 2021’s Best Short series winner About Saturday, also vying for a Rose d’or.

Upcoming releases include State of Happiness season 2, set to premiere on NRK January 2, 2022, and Jakob Rørvik’s debut feature Tomas in the Multiverse, scheduled to open domestically in March.