28/05/2009

The Telescoop initiative, which reunites the Dutch Film Fund, the CoBo Fund and the Dutch public broadcasting organisations, has awarded three film projects with funds of €1.8m each.

Telescoop’s aim is to provide production support for quality Dutch films that have the potential to reach a large audience. The three projects were chosen from a dozen applications, and all three are by established directors.

Maria Peeters, who has recently directed several very popular adaptations of the youth novels by Carry Slee, received funding for Sonny Boy, an adaptation of the novel by Annejet van der Zijl. The story centres on a Dutch mother of four who falls in love with a Surinam boy 17 years her junior. Peeters’ regular production company Shooting Star Filmcompany will produce Sonny Boy, in collaboration with Catholic broadcaster KRO.

The director of the successful Sinterklaas children’s films, Mischa Kamp, is set to direct Tony Tien. The story of a ten-year-old whose father goes from a construction worker to cabinet minister was written by Martin Koolhoven’s regular screenwriter Mieke de Jong. It will be produced by Lemming Film in association with broadcaster NPS.

The new film of director Rudolf van den Berg after an eight-year filmmaking hiatus is Tirza, based on the eponymous bestseller by the enfant terrible of Dutch literature, Arnon Grunberg. The story of a man looking for his daughter was adapted by van den Berg and will be produced by Fu Works Productions and Cadenza Films, with backing from NPS.

All three films are expected to premiere in 2010. Past Telescoop successes include the box office hits Phileine Says Sorry, Bride Flight [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ben Sombogaart
interview: Hanneke Niens
film profile], Black Book [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Love is All [+see also:
trailer
film profile].