Anagram Väst will be the fourth sister company of the 11 year-old group with Anagram Pocket, specialised in non-scripted content for the digital market, Anagram Film & TV and Anagram Live, handling live events and conferences.
Carlsson told nordiskfilmogtvfond.com. “Anagram’s production ambitions are growing fast. Until now we’ve concentrated on films for the arthouse market [such as Eat, Sleep Die and recent festival hit Underdog] and in television we’re doing pure drama. Our new ambition is to expand and produce bigger films for a wider audience and at the same time move into genre TV drama, including crime. This is what Anagram Väst will focus on. Jessica Ask who was instrumental in helping Film i Väst expand into TV drama and internationally-oriented feature films is Head of Development for the new company."
Carlsson and Ask will both dip into their wide network of Scandinavian and international connections to lift the potential of their future projects above the SEK30 million (€3.2m) mark.
Anagram’s new commercial ambitions will make it an ideal target for major foreign distribution groups hungry for quality foreign language TV drama but Carlsson says the group is adamant to remain independent. “We are probably the only big production company in Sweden still independent but this is also what makes our strength and uniqueness in the market,” stresses Carlsson.
For the moment no project has landed yet at Anagram Väst, but Anagram Film & TV will soon deliver the much anticipated mini-series Viva Hate directed by Norwegian director Jens Lien based on a script by Peter Birro. The series will air on SVT at Christmas.
Season two of the serial drama 30 Degrees in February has started filming this week in Gothenburg and will move to Thailand in February 2015. As for Måns Månsson’s feature The Yard (Jarden) based on Kristian Lundberg’s biographical novel, the project should be delivered in time for Berlin.