The Managing Director of London-based Film &Music Entertainment (F&ME) who has been actively involved in Nordic co-productions for the last seven years brings more clout to the table, as he explains to nordiskfilmogtvfond.com.

In what way will your new deal with Molinare benefit foreign producers?
A solid deal with a world class post production house will benefit all producers, not just the foreign ones. We have a very effective deal with Molinare, which is the UK's largest privately owned post production facility, backed by Indian consortium Century Communications. In forging this new relationship, we are not merely consolidating our buying power in post production. We are creating a partnership that can structure productions and co-productions in such a way as to maximise the tax credit potential for our own indigenous productions and for the rapidly dwindling co-production market.

Is today's tax situation in the UK more favourable to foreign co-producers?
No, it isn't. But tax deals aren't the only game in town. First of all prices in the UK have become more competitive with their European counterparts in the wake of the demise of section 48 and section 42. This, coupled with the downward swing on the exchange rate, makes for a very competitive post production market place. If a film is commercial enough there is some room also for investment.

Tell us about your relationships with the Nordic region. Who do you work with and what projects do you have in production?There's one other thing that really works between the UK and the Nordic region: we understand each other in business affairs terms and work to similar high standards.

Scandinavia has always been an enormous creative talent pool for us, and many of our previous collaborations have done very well, such as Strings from Denmark Quest for a Heart from Finland, Eleven Men Out, and all of Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's projects from Iceland. We are currently in post production on the Icelandic film The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre by Julius Kemp, which is the first film to be handled as part of our new deal at Molinare. We are also in discussions in Scandinavia on a series of projects that we hope to bring to fruition very soon. Those include the Egil Odegard produced Viking epic, The First Vikings, a new film from long time collaborator Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, and we are going forward on Joona Tena's new Finnish film The Debt, and Marko Rohr's 3D Underwater Iceland.