News

Paris-based About Premium Content has boarded international sales on the Finnish sports drama thriller “Guts” from hot creator Jemina Jokisalo, behind the feminist porn tale “Money Shot” which scooped the Student Award for best short form series at Canneseries 2024, and is currently running for Göteborg TV Drama Vision’s Nordic Series Script Award.

News of Apc’s pick-up on “Guts” comes as Paris-based Federation Studios, which handles international sales with Nordisk Film on “Money Shot,” has inked first distribution deals on “Money Shot” for France (Canal+), Lithuania and Greece.

The eight-part series “Guts,” commissioned by Finnish pubcaster Yle, is produced by Just Republic, co-headed by producer Sasu Norhomaa and screenwriter Jokisalo.

Its story turns on cross-country skiing top athlete Anna who gets one more chance to become a world champion. An eternal underdog, she is determined to win at all costs and to beat her nemesis, natural-born skiing sensation Maria.

Following the Venice Film Festival premiere of her Biennale College Cinema title “Palimpsest” – about two people that start to age backwards – Finnish helmer Hanna Västinsalo will continue to play with sci-fi elements in “Space Hobos: How to Bum a Ride from Sector B12 to Module C9.”

“It’s about workers like plumbers, welders or cleaners, trying to make their way in the world of space travel,” Västinsalo explains to Variety in Italy.

“The core of the story is drawn from my own experience of being a starving artist and trying to make it. Not always knowing how to pay rent or having money to buy groceries.”

Västinsalo is also eyeing longer formats, developing “Heaven”: a series about a nun who, after being estranged from her father, inherits his male brothel.

“I would love to explore the world that revolves around female pleasure and the bonds of a family that ends up working together,...

Apc (About Premium Content) has scored key territories sales on “Man in Room 301,” the anticipated Finnish thriller drama which is playing in competition at Canneseries.

The gripping series, written by U.K. actor-turned-screenwriter Kate Ashfield (“Born to Kill”), opens in summer 2007 with the Kurtti family spending their holidays in cabin chalets in the land of a thousand lakes when their two-year old son, Tommi, is killed by a gunshot. Elias, a surly 12-year-old neighbor who has already committed minor acts of aggression against the family, is blamed for the death of the child. 12 years after the tragedy, the family is just about to go on holiday at a Greek resort when they receive a threatening anonymous letter. At the rest, they come across a man that looks like an adult Elias.

Commissioned by Finland’s leading streamer Elisa Viihde, the show was sold by Apc to Arte for France and Germany,...

Leading Finnish streaming company Elisa Viihde is partnering up with A+E Networks on a new original series, “Next of Kin,” a mystery drama set in the near future.

The eight-part series is scheduled to begin filming this week in Helsinki, Finland, and will be distributed worldwide by A+E Networks. “Next of Kin” will the first original drama to bow on Elisa Viihde Viaplay, the upcoming streaming service that will be jointly launched by Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent Group) and Elisa Viihde this fall.

“Next of Kin” takes place in Helsinki and poses some fundamental questions about humanity. The series follows Liv, who decides to discover what happened to her DNA sample when it was stolen from a biobank, but she unknowingly ends up being pursued.

“Next of Kin” is headlined by a strong Nordic cast, including Nika Savolainen (“Shadow Lines”) and Elmer Bäck (“Idiomatic”), as well as Matleena Kuusniemi...

Sidse Babett Knudsen joins cast of Finnish-Swedish-Estonian drama.

Borgen and The Duke Of Burgundy star Sidse Babett Knudsen has joined the cast of The Eternal Road (Ikitie), the Finnish-Swedish-Estonian drama directed by Aj Annila that begins shooting in Estonia today (June 20).

Ilkka Matila produces for Helsinki-based Mrp Matila Rohr Productions while co-producers are Martin Person from Sweden’s Person Anagram and Kristian Taska from Estonia’s Taska Film.

The film, which will shoot for about six weeks between now and January 2017, is based on Antti Tuuri’s bestselling book of the same name; Tuuri has written the screenplay alongside the director.

Tommi Korpela (A Man’s Job) plays Jussi Ketola, an American who returns to his Finnish homeland during the Great Depression. He is abducted by right wing thugs and flees to establish a new life in the Soviet Union where American immigrants take part in building a worker’s paradise until Stalin’s government turns against...