Mariella Harpelunde Jensen who directed the children TV hits Barda and Isa’s Stepz is attached to the DKK15-17 million (around €2.5 million) project. Elise Lund Larsen, Bullitt Film co-founder and head of the company’s Fiction division explains the script will be an original story based on The Famous Five characters that will be updated and transposed into a Scandinavian setting.
“The Famous Five books have a strong crime element. We will remain faithful to this and will also make it into a broad family film. We will therefore stay true to Scandinavia’s strong tradition of family films and at the same time bring something new to the genre,” she told nordiskfilmogtvfond.com.
The Famous Five books are world renowned and are about four children and their dog who spend their summer together and whose friendship grows stronger as mysterious events happen on an island next to where they live. “The main theme is that the characters are capable kids that stand together to achieve things,” stresses Lund Larsen. Expected production start is summer 2014. TV2 Danmark is supporting the development stage.
Mis.Label’s commitment to The Famous Five: An Adventure marks the company’s first collaboration with Bullitt Film and coincides with the distributor’s new strategy to invest into local productions. “Everything about this project is fresh and we think it has great potential in Denmark and abroad,” said René Sørensen, Mis.Label CEO.
Besides The Famous Five project Bullitt Film and Mis.Label will develop projects for a new ‘Nordic Drama’ strand focusing on Nordic co-productions. A political thriller and the psychological drama The Forest (to be co-produced with Norway) are currently in development. A third strand for low budget films will focus on genre films.
Bullitt Film’s renowned Documentary division headed by the company’s co-founder Vibeke Vogel, has several projects in various stages of production. Those include Suitable by Katrine Philp, focusing on UN refugees in Denmark, and Cooper’s Challenge by Karen Stokkendal Poulsen, about negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo seen from EU Chief Negotiator Robert Cooper’s viewpoint. Both titles were supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.