Monky directed by Maria Blom (Dalecarlians), is based on an original script by Anders Weidemann, creator/writer of the comedy show 30 degrees in February. The family film is a sample of what Unlimited Stories wants to bring to the Scandinavian and international markets: quality scripted content for a large audience. “We’re not primarily interested in festivals and winning prizes; our biggest prize would be getting a big audience in the cinemas, TV or streaming services,” said the company’s CEO Poa Strömberg who founded the company in the spring 2016, with three colleagues from Eyeworks Scandi Fiction, seasoned producers Patrick Ryborn, Linus Torell and Teresa Alldén.

“We want to work with established brand characters and universes, as well as IP that the audience can recognise,” added the former entertainment and media lawyer Strömberg. “Monky is not an established universe yet, but we have been working for more than a year with Nordisk Film on creating an awareness with a teaser campaign.”
Monky tells the story of Frank (11) and his friendship with a mysterious gibbon ape that unexpectedly shows up in his home one night after tragedy strikes. It soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary animal and in the search for answers, Frank and his family embark on a thrilling adventure that will take them from a small Swedish village to the deepest jungles of Thailand.

In the starring roles are Frida Hallgren (As it is in Heaven), Johan Petersson (Partaj) and Julius Hugoson (Sune family), but most important, the CGI animated monkey. Producer Patrick Ryborn told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “I loved Anders Weidemann’s script and from the inception, we had the idea to create a monkey that looked real, like in Planet of the Apes, to bring something fresh to the audience." Swedish visual effects supervisor Alex Hansson of Haymakers/Chimney Sweden (Men & Chicken, Borg vs McEnroe) was put in charge of the VFX works. “Alex worked with another experience animator/VFX specialist Chris Stenner of Chimney Germany [Emmy-award winner for HBO’s Game of Thrones and Oscar-nominated for the short animated film Das Rad] and they did a fantastic job.”

The €4.3m film was co-produced by the Chimney Group’s Swedish and German branches, Film i Väst, Nouvago Capital and SVT, with support from Swedish Film Institute and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Picture Tree International handles world sales.

Unlimited has two other films in post-production to be released by Nordisk Film as part of an output deal.

• Lyrro Ut& Invandrarna is directed by Peter Dalle who also stars alongside some of the ensemble cast of the hit TV series Lorry and film Yrrol: Johan Ulveson, Claes Månsson and Suzanne Reuter. New actors include Björn Gustafsson, Henrik Dorsin and Nour El Refai. The sketch-based comedy features two couples-two asylum seekers from North Africa who arrive in Sweden and a Swedish couple heading south to relight the fire in their relationship and loose weight. 
• Sune vs Sune is a new film based on the successful Sune family franchise (The Anderssons Family in English) by Sören Olsson & Anders Jacobsson. “We’ve made three Sune films at Eyeworks with a travel theme, and we’re starting fresh at Unlimited with three new films, with a new cast and a different take,” said Strömberg.

The three first Sune films (The Anderssons in Greece, The Anderssons Hit the Road and The Anderssons hit the Mountain) had over 500,000 admissions each in Sweden.

A major feature in development is the Trustor project, based on the infamous 1997 ‘Trustor affair’, one of Sweden’s biggest corporate frauds ever. Peter Birro (Waltz for Monica) and Oskar Söderlund (Greyzone, The Fat and the Angry) have written the script.

On the Drama series front, Unlimited has acquired rights to two crime series based on the books by best-selling authors Mons Kallentoft and Håkan Nesser.
Kallentoft's Malin Fors will be adapted for the small screen by head-writer Anders Sparring (Farang). The central character is superintendent Malin Fors, a single mother struggling with her own demons and alcohol dependency. The crime show is available both as a serial of 10x44’ with an overall arch, and as a classic procedural of 5x90’ with closed episodes. Unlimited is waiting for the final greenlit from CMore/TV4. DR Sales handles world distribution.