Tell us about Zik Zak and your editorial line?
Þórir S. Sigurjónsson and I started the company in 1995. We were still at university then, so it wasn't until 1999 that we actually started to produce. Our first film was Ragnar Bragason's Fiasco. Our company is totally independent, although we have some private investors behind us.
We work with up and coming talents in whom we believe and want to grow with. We did Ragnar Bragason's first movie. He went on making Children and Parents with Vesturport theatre group, and now he is coming back to us. Dagur Kari is another example. We did his first film, and co-produced with Denmark his second film Dark Horse. We're now prepping his third film A Good Heart in New York. In the past couple of years we have also started to place a greater emphasis on documentaries and short films as well.
You've previously produced the successful Screaming Masterpieces and Africa United. How important are documentaries for you and what are you currently working on?We are working on very diverse documentaries; one about a young Ukrainian girl, Katja, whose incredible story of survival on the streets of Kiev is at the same time heartbreaking and humane, then one called Electronica Reykjavik about history of the Icelandic techno scene, and we are finally co-producing Dreamland about the Brave New World of industrialization that threatens the Icelandic landscape.
Can you give us more details about your various films in production?
Rúnar Rúnarsson who did the 2005 Oscar nominated short film The Last Farm with us is now studying at the Danish Film School, and he recently finished shooting a short film for us, Two Birds, which is in post-production. The other short film in post-production is Unholy Night by Arni Thor Jonsson who comes from commercials. This is his first short, a horror film; furthermore we are in the process of developing a feature with him as well.
In terms of feature films in post-production, we have Back Soon by Solveig Anspach, a light-hearted road movie. The lead character, Anna Hallgrimsdottir, is in her late 30s is going through a crisis in life, which is quite normal, but she's going through it in a more extreme way than others. We're trying to finish the film before Christmas in the hope to get into festivals (Berlin or Cannes).
What's the budget and how did you get involved in the project?It's a €1.5m film. We've known Solveig a long time, and she came to us with the project. She had already contacted Patrick Sobelman from Ex-Nihilo in France who is involved in all her films, and we all got together. We are delegate producers and Patrick is co-producing. But it's been a real team effort. We have several things in development with Ex Nihilo and hope it will be a long-lasting relationship e.g. Good Heart. There is also a strong possibility that Anna will return in Solveig's next project, whether it will be a sequel to Back Soon, or not time will tell.
What's the status with Kári first English-language film A Good Heart?
We are finishing the casting which has been a very long process. The young man who plays Lucas is a known American actor. The rest of the cast is European.
The €2.6m film is European in terms of financing with support from the Icelandic Film Centre, the Danish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Eurimages, Canal +, Arte. Wild Bunch is handling sales. It's a good mixture of soft money, pre-sales and MGs from bigger companies. It will start shooting at the end of December, or early January. Some scenes will be shot in New York and all the rest in studios in Iceland. We have a beautiful abandoned US army base (including a hospital) so we will be shooting there.
Where has the film been pre-sold?
All Scandinavia (Scanbox), France (Wild Side), Arte has bought French and German free TV rights, Canal + pay TV rights, NHK in Japan bought all TV rights.
The project was announced two years ago. Why did it take so long to go into production?
It wasn't because of financing but for creative reasons, including casting. We changed the financial structure a little bit so we wouldn't be cast-bound. Now we can cast whoever we want. It is a producer's nightmare to try to get all the creative elements together at the same time. So in the end we just had to move on.
Is Wild Bunch going to start pre-selling it in Berlin?
The strategy is that we will probably avoid pre-sales because with Dagur as an established name, the casting that will be in place, plus the fact that it's his first film in English, we are very confident and want to wait for the finished film to get strong offers. So Wild Bunch will probably just use teasers in Berlin, if that even.
What other projects do you have in development?
We're doing a €1.5m film with Arni Ólafur Ásgeirsson (Thicker Than Water) called Undercurrent, together with Vesturport. It is based on a play that we've adapted for the cinema. It will start shooting in March/April 2008. It's the story of a crew on a fishing boat. During one tour one of the crew commits suicide and in order to fill his place a young inexperienced girl is hired. Just by being a woman, she unbalances the equilibrium on board. Some men think it is bad luck. Others find it exciting. It's really a realistic story about what happens on board those fishing boats during winter time. We're currently looking for Scandinavian co-producers.
With Ragnar Bragason, we have a film which he wrote four years ago. It's a kind of a fairy tale about an Icelandic boy with super sensitive hearing, a mix between Spiderman and Oliver Twist. The film will be co-produced with Alphaville Production in Denmark. Then we are developing several children and youth films because this genre is really lacking in Iceland.