Exclusive - The company co-founded by writer/director Haukur Björgvinsson will be introducing at Content London the series Barbara starring Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir.

Sellout is the new Reykjavik-based production company led be the young up-and-coming duo Tinna Proppé, who brings with her several years of experience at Sagafilm, where she produced the series Sisterhood and major European co-production Operation Napoleon, and Haukur Björgvinsson, commercials and film writer/director.

Following their collaboration on Björgvinsson’s multi-awarded short film Heartless (2022 Edda best short film), the couple decided to make Sellout their home for bold and original stories for a wide audience, with a strong artistic vision.

“Our vision is to tell stories that haven’t been told, with eye-catching characters or concepts,” says Proppé. “Yes something weird or strange stories, also quite genre-oriented” adds Björgvinsson who cites Parasite, Get Out and Severance among his favourite films and TV shows.

The three projects in most advanced development stages on Sellout’s slate reflect the co-founders’ narrative taste.

Headlining their line-up is the 6x30’ series Barbara, developed for Iceland’s Stöð 2 (Channel 2). Björgvinsson and Proppé exclusively revealed to us that star actress Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir (Woman at War, The Garden) has accepted to take up the titular role.

In the series, the main character is a chess prodigy, Daniel, who suffers from a neurological disorder and uses an electric wheelchair. He has been raised by overprotective adoptive parents, until he discovers that the most popular TV show host of the country, Barbara, is his biological mother. The entire nation sees Barbara as a charming role model, but in reality she is self-absorbed, and hides inner demons. When Daniel suddenly appears, her life crumbles.
With the support from the rebellious Hulda, Daniel will find the strength to break free from his protected life and connect with Barbara.

Björgvinsson says he will involve a person with disability for the second stage of his writing to bring authenticity to the storytelling. “We want those voices to be heard and to involve them at script stage.”

The series selected for the Content London Drama Pitches on November 28, will be available for co-financing and co-production. ‘Ideally, we’d like to attract a strong co-commissioner or co-producer, either from the Nordics or Europe. The series is partly set in a TV station, so we could shoot anywhere basically,” notes Proppé who hopes to start production in the summer 2024.

Two other feature projects written and directed by Björgvinsson have their scripts ready for market.

  • Hell no, goodbye is a folk horror thriller and the feature-length version of Björgvinsson’s Heartless. Anna and Gunnar, a couple struggling with marital problems, move to a remote village only to discover that the townspeople play a sinister spouse lottery that could change their lives forever.
  • Amazing Wow is a sci-fi thriller/black comedy. Jacob, a single father of two, is offered to move into an A.I operated mansion to play a fake family to a billionaire heiress who suffers from memory loss. He soon learns that the technology isn’t on everyone’s side.

    Two series with no writer or director yet attached are in early stages of development:
  • Scandinavia (8x45’) is a murder mystery/black comedy. At the height of the cold war, a streak of murders causes panic at a conference of Nordic statisticians in a secluded ski resort called Scandinavia. Locked in the hotel, the hardboiled bureaucrats must use their skills and diplomacy to find the killer.
  • The Unaffected (10x 60’) is a thriller/sci-fi. When an experimental drug inadvertently eradicates empathy, the "Unaffected," a dystopian elite, seize global dominance. Harry, a skilled young hacker, is enlisted by a covert resistance group to dismantle their oppressive regime.