10/09/2009

Julius Kemp’s genre film Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre (RWWM) that opened in Iceland last weekend, has been picked up for UK distribution by E1.

The deal was brokered by UK co-producers Sam Taylor and Mike Downey (F&ME) on behalf of subsidiary Portpic Ltd, and Jon Bourdillon for EI. RWWM is described by director Kemp as “an epic tale about a group of whale watchers, whose ship breaks down and they get picked up by a sinister and dilapidated whale fishing vessel. The ‘Fishbillies’ on the vessel have just gone bust, and everything goes out of control That said, it is an ironic take on the genre that was spawned by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’s dark, it’s gory – but there are also a lot of laughs."

Gunnar Hansen, famous for his role as ‘Leatherface’ in the 1974 US Massacre has a cameo in RWWM. The film is written by Sjon Sigurdson who was Oscar nominated for his script of Dancer in the Dark. Kemp who has concentrated on film production over the last decade for his company The Icelandic Film Company, had not directed a film since his 1997 Blossi/810551.

RWWM opened last weekend in Iceland for a third place at the Top Ten after Up and Inglourious Bastards [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The SamFilm release sold 2,631 tickets from five screens. The film was produced by The Icelandic Film Company in co-production with F&ME (UK) and Solar Films (Finland), with support from the Icelandic Film Centre and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. UK co-producer Downey said his main objective now with RWWM is to close a world sales deal in Toronto.

Meanwhile EI has released another Scandinavian horror film last week: the Norwegian cult film Dead Snow. The film sold 20,000 copies, making it the biggest selling foreign language film on DVD in the UK of all time.