The Finnish production house which scooped the Series Mania Award with Tipping Point in Berlin, is ramping up its slate with cross-border and cross-generational series.
The hot production house Reelmedia, currently at Series Mania Forum with the eco-spy thriller Tipping Point, pitched out of competition in Lille, has unveiled its full slate of series for 2023-24 with various broadcasters and platforms on board.
Toplining its line-up of high-end series targeting the international market is The Girl Who Disappeared (Nainen joka Katosi) ordered by MTV3/ C More and set to start filming in May.
The psycho triller is penned by seasoned writer Simo Halinen (Open Up to Me, The Paradise), from his own recently published eponymous novel. The four-part series with three storylines intertwining, tells of a sexual assault, from the points of view of three different characters-Maura, Aaro and Erkka. “We don’t know who to believe, which creates suspense until the truth is revealed,” said Head of Content Johanna Enäsuo, co-owner of Reelmedia together with CEO and long-time producer Marko Röhr, and Head of Legal Affairs Lasse Laaksonen.
The A-list Finnish cast will be announced closer to principal photography.
Also due to start filming this year -later in June-is the anticipated third season of the crime thriller The Paradise, co-produced again with leading Spanish group Mediapro Studios for Yle, with co-financing from the N12 Nordic public broadcasting alliance DR, SVT, NRK and RÚV.
Seasoned director Marja Pyykkö is back behind the camera, working closely again with head-writer Matti Laine, nominated with the original show in 2020 for the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize. Laine will bring a new social message to the forefront, beyond the crime plot, centering on detective Hilkka Mäntymäki (Riitta Havukainen) and her investigation in the tightly-knot Finnish community of Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol. Details will be unveiled at a later date.
On the back of their positive experience with Spain, Reelmedia and Finnish public broadcaster Yle have signed up on a new partnership with Spanish company Mediacret to jointly develop the eco-thriller 17kHz, minority Finnish produced. The screenplay co-written by Carlos Molinero and Paula Sánchez, turns on a group of youngsters, plotting worldwide rebellion as a way to save the planet.
“We want to explore creating content for the younger audience, that is altogether entertaining, topical and challenging,” said Enäsuo.“ The young audience is very demanding, so we are spending time thoroughly researching the types of stories that matter to them, to try to understand the world through them,” observes the head of content, adding that another YA project in development will tackle the transgender issue.
Buzzy Series Mania Tipping Point
Meanwhile the buzzy project in development Tipping Point, to be pitched March 21 at Series Mania Forum, is described by Enäsuo as another “meaningful series” -at the core of Reelmedia’s DNA, with “cross border and cross generational potential.”
Producer Markku Flink who has worked on the project for more than six years told us he had “a significant amount of meeting requests in Berlin”, and was able to meet half of the companies in a tight time frame. “It’s been crazy how much response we’ve had after our pitch and Series Mania Award in Berlin, and the same seems to continue here in Lille where we will pitch again for an even wider audience,” he said.
The story from head-writer Brendan Foley, tells of a young female eco-activist-at war with her own oil executive father-until the latter is murdered and she discovers her father’s true identity and decides to pick up his fight.
“The series is crucially set in the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean, and it deals with the near cold war in the Arctic,” explains Flink. “We started off with Risto Isomäki’s novel ‘Sands of Sarasvati’, but in the meantime, the world has changed. We’ve tried to find a way to simplify some elements in the story and have developed the characters to make the show more relevant to today’s reality,” says the producer, mentioning the generational clash as a key engine in the narrative.
The series is set to start production in 2024.
Tipping Point is the third collaboration between Foley and Flink after Viaplay’s Cold Courage, and the black comedy The Man Who Died commissioned by Elisa Viihde.
Based on the eponymous best-selling novel by author Antti Tuomainen, who adapted his own book for television with Foley, The Man Who Died premiered in 2022 to wide acclaim, and was picked up by Fifth Season (formerly Endeavour Content) for global distribution.
The Man Who Died Season 2, currently in development, will be co-produced by Japan’s AX-ON, part of Nippon TV Group. “We will expand the Japanese elements, already present in season 1, and bring a larger Finnish-Japanese cast on board,” said Flink who travelled to Japan for location scouting in January.
While the opening season followed the fate of mushroom entrepreneur Jaakko Kaunismaa (Jussi Vatanen) who discovers he has been slowly poisoned and sets out to find his would be murderer, season 2 picks up the story in Japan, in a Tokyo hospital, where Kaunismaa has emerged from a medically induced coma. No shooting date has yet been set.
Also in development is the returning season of the political drama thriller Peacemaker, penned again by Antti Pesonen.
Based on an original idea by Enäsuo and scriptwriter Eriikka Etholen, the series about the world of peace-making, first aired on Yle in 2020, and subsequently on the N12 partners. Internationally, the show headlining Irina Björklund as peacekeeper Ann-Mari, was sold by REinvent to various high-profile platforms such as Topic for North America, AMC for Latin America, Spain, Portugal and HBO Max for the Nordics.
“We are looking forward to continuing the high concept series, where reality collides with fiction and we’re planning to set season 2 in Ukraine,” said Enäsuo, who feels it is Reelmedia’s duty to feature the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.
“Finland is not neutral anymore, as we’ve applied to joint NATO. It will be interesting to explore how the main character Ann-Mari, deals with this new situation,” added the Finnish TV executive, currently negotiating the returning show with broadcasters and global platforms.
Commenting on Reelmedia’ overall slate, Flink said it epitomises Finland’s move away from ‘Finnish weird’ and ability to create a wide range of high-quality drama-whatever the format. “Our shows, co-produced with major international partners, cover a wide range of topics and genres that we’re interested in. And our pitch award for Tipping Point in Berlin showed that we were there with a timely subject at the right time.”
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