Animated Niko makes its way to The Weinstein Co
by Annika Pham
The European animated feature film Niko & the Way to the Stars [+see also:
trailer
film profile], co-directed by Finland’s Kari Juusonen and Denmark’s Michael Hegner, has just been pre-sold by Telepool to The Weinstein Company for all English-language territories and Latin America.
A record 100 distribution deals have already been signed on the 3D animated film, including Universum in Germany and Filmax in Spain. The Finnish premiere through Nordisk Film Distribution is set for October 10, 2008.
“Nordisk Film will coordinate the release in all Nordic countries, which is almost as rare as a US deal for a Finnish film,” stressed producer Hannu Tuomainen (head of Finnish production company Cinemaker).
Based on an original story that Tuomainen co-wrote with Marteinn Thorisson, Niko tells the adventures of a young reindeer and his quest to find and save his absent father whom he believes to be a member of Santa’s “Flying Forces”, the elite reindeers pulling his sleigh.
“The boy is raised by his mother and a ‘stepfather’, a flying Squirrel named Julius who has nothing heroic but loves Niko. The film is a classic fairy tale with a modern twist, dealing with single parenthood,” said Tuomainen.
Juusonen won the Short Film Animation Jury Prize in Cannes 2001 for Pizza Passionata and Hegner the European Director of the Year at Cartoon Movie 2007 for Ugly Duckling & Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
The €6.1m film is produced by Tuomainen and fellow Finn Pettri Pasanen (Anima Vitae) in co-production with A Film (Denmark), Ulysses (Germany) and Magma Films (Ireland). An overall 22 financiers were involved in the project, including the Finnish Film Foundation, Hamburg Film Fund, Danish Film Institute and Irish Film Board, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Eurimages, as well as broadcasters YLE, TV2 Denmark and ZDF.
The animation work on the film will be finished in January. The final mix will start in May and the first print will be available in June 2008. Telepool will organise a marketing presentation for all the distributors at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival.
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
