Maipo's line-up includes the animation film Hocus Pocus-Alfie Atkins currently on screens, the puppet film Solan & Ludvig’s Christmas set to open in November, plus two ambitious features in post-production: the Jo Nesbø children’s book adaptation Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder and Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie starring Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell.
Hocus Pocus Alfie Atkins is playing in Swedish cinemas since August 23 and opened last Friday in Norway where it took a third place. Are you pleased with the results?
Synnøve Hørsdal: Very much so. It’s performing really well for a pre-school film. This autumn we have a lot of competition in terms of children’s movies in Norway while last year we hardly had any. We still did quite well and hope to stay on screens for the long run.
You also have a stop motion puppet animation film coming up in November, Solan & Ludvig’s Christmas. Was this programmed to coincide with Norway’s celebration of 100 years of animation?
SH: No it’s just a coincidence that the two films come out at the same time. Animation just takes a long time to do and it’s hard to plan ahead on a specific delivery date. It’s been a learning curve and a fantastic experience for me and we will definitely do more animation films in the future.
Would you say that 2013 is a landmark year for Maipo with those two animation films coming out and three films in production: the youth film Night of the 17th, the family film Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder based on Jo Nesbø’s book and Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie?
SH: We have restructured our company over the last five years and hired in more producers to be able to fulfil our vision to expand on the Nordic and international market. When we started in 2000 with Dag Alveberg, business was different. It was harder to have a long-term strategy - you often went from one film to another. You always live off individual films, but you have to be able to maintain a regular flow of projects to survive. Maipo has never done commercials or major TV entertainment to spread the risks. Then Nordisk Film came in as co-owners in 2007 and that helped to come on board bigger projects and make major Nordic family properties the core of our business. But these ambitious projects also take longer to reach the market.
Today our production team consists of Cornelia Boysen who was involved in Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder and Solan & Ludvig, Åshild Ramborg, Kristin Ulseth who supervised Hocus Pocus-Alfie Atkins, and Moa Liljedahl who produced Night to the 17th. I’m involved in all projects.
The most important is that right now I have two directors that I focus on: Anne Sewitsky and Petter Næss. Then I look at other projects and decide to get involved or not. But someone has to show a clear desire to make that particular project happen. The idea of earning money is not enough.
Miss Julie and Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder are major European co-productions. How did these projects come together?
SH: Doctor Proctor was quite a long time in development. We started close to the book than distanced ourselves from it and came back to it. In the meantime the book climbed on the top charts which helped. In 2012 we brought the project to the Co-production market in Berlin. People from large companies came to us and really wanted to be involved. Senator Film in Germany was one of them. They guaranteed a large portion of the financing so we could kick off production. Then Filmlance from Sweden came on board. We have worked with them on several projects (including Jan Troell’s The Last Sentence) and we have a great relationship. The film’s final budget is NOK41 m (around €5.1 m).
What’s the status?
SH: We closed the editing yesterday and are extremely happy with it. It’s an ambitious family movie and it shows. There are few live action family films in Europe aimed at a large audience outside the domestic market. We’re working now on the special effects made in Germany. We have to create a massive anaconda living in the sewer. That’s a challenge in itself!
We’re planning to finish the film before Christmas and to show something at the Berlin market via TrustNordisk.
Have you done test-screening to pinpoint the exact age group?
SH: We’ve done some test screenings to see how the comedy was received by different age groups. The adults laughed so much they were falling off their chairs, and the 7-12 group of course loved it.
What about Miss Julie. It’s another project clearly rooted in Norwegian culture but targeting the international market…
SH: There has been a lot of interest around it because of Liv Ullmann and the A cast. It’s been quite tough to finance with different partners, a lot of prestige that made it challenging to jungle around. We wanted to keep a closer control over the creative process, and everyone wanted to be executive producers…the film is co-produced with France (Senorita Films), Ireland (Subotica Films) and the UK (Apocalypse). The budget is NOK 33m (€ 4.1m) which is relatively low, but it obviously involves only three characters and it was shot in a single location. We locked the editing yesterday as well.
I guess the goal would be to go to Cannes where Liv Ullmann was last in competition with Faithless….
SH: It wouldn’t hurt!! It’s beautiful classic piece, with high quality directing and acting.
You have slate funding from the Norwegian Film Institute to make three films with Anne Sewitsky after Happy Happy. What’s her next project?
SH: It’s been fantastic for me to be able to develop three films at the same time. Homesick will be the first of the three Anne Sewitsky films and it will start filming in January. It’s a film about wanting to belong. A brother and sister meet for the first time as grown-ups. They have sex and start a destructive relationship. The scriptwriter is Happy Happy’s Ragnhill Tronvoll. The lead actress will be newcomer Ine Wilman. Then Anne has another project about the Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie who became a Hollywood star.
Besides Ine Wilman, who else will play in Homesick?
SH: We will announce it very soon. The main actor will be Swedish.
You said Petter Næss is your other in-house talent. What are you preparing with him?
SH: We have two projects with him. One is about the treatment of the "tysketöser", ie Norwegian women who had relationships with Germans during WW2. They lost a lot of rights, from citizenship to pension. It’s a very controversial theme. We also prepare with him an adaptation of Per Gynt.
Norwegian films have a higher profile internationally and several directors are working both in Hollywood and in Norway. Does it make it easier to raise financing?
SH: Yes it is much easier to go out and pitch projects, to be heard and attract interest. Today being Norwegian actually opens doors internationally.