20/08/2009

Thomas Gammeltoft, founder of Fine & Mellow Productions and happy producer of Henrik Ruben Genz’s Terribly Happy [+see also:
trailer
film profile], is helping his protégé put together the US version of his film and is also currently producing a film in Brazil.

Ever since Terribly Happy won the Crystal Globe Award in Karlovy Vary 2008 and piled up international and national awards, Gammeltoft and Genz have been courted by US agents for a possible US remake. Now, the US version is coming together, fast.

US producer Carol Polarkoff and Mark Johnson (executive producer of Narnia) are attached to the project, estimated at around $20m. Genz will take the original story of the Danish Terribly Happy and develop the characters, with the help of US scriptwriter Howard Rodman. Beforehand, the original Terribly Happy will be released theatrically in the US by Oscilloscope.

Other US projects are in the pipeline for Gammeltoft and Genz, who want to build on the success of Terribly Happy and other Danish filmmakers in the US, such as Susanne Bier. However, they do not intend to forget their roots, a country where Fine & Mellow is still very much involved in creating films and TV dramas “with a strong human aspect”.

Rosa Morena, the directorial debut of Brazilian filmmaker Carlos Oliveira – trained at a Danish film school – is “spot on” in terms of human drama. Currently shooting in Brazil, the film tells of a Danish gay man who goes to Brazil to adopt a child. He meets a pregnant girl in the favelas and they make a deal to let him have her unborn child. Things become complicated when love develops between them. Anders W Berthelsen stars.

The low budget film (€1.8m) is produced by Fine & Mellow’s Astrid Hytten for the Danish Film Institute’s New Danish Screen, in co-production with Brazil’s Ginga Eleven. Nordisk Film will handle Danish distribution and TrustNordisk world sales.