08/07/2014 - First launched in 1953 and 1966, respectively, the Danish family franchises are ready with new instalments: On a Wild Holiday and My Gold Rush Adventure

The My Sister’s Kids cast on the way to Canada – producer Michael Obel (left) and lead actor Rasmus Botoft with the five children before departure (© Mikkel Elbech)

Both in their fourth generation, the Danish family franchises Father of Four and My Sister’s Kids are still children’s favourites and will shortly launch new instalments – FoF: On a Wild Holiday and MSK: My Gold Rush Adventure, which are both filming in Denmark and Canada. 

The production of On a Wild Holiday in western Jutland got off to an unhappy start, when lead actress Bodil Jørgensen was severely wounded in a tractor accident while she was shooting a scene; currently still hospitalised, she had to be replaced by Kirsten Lehfeldt in a cast featuring Sigurd Philip Dalgas, Karoline Hamm, Rasmus Johnbeck and Emilie Werner Semmelroth.

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Scripted by Jens Korse and directed by Giacomo Campeotto, the film follows the family on summer holiday on an island where the father is suspected of being a burglar. When they are about to be evicted, Little Per finds the vital clue to tracking down the real thieves. Henrik Møller-Sørensen and Marcella L Dichmann will produce for ASA Film Production, with Nordisk Film, which will also distribute.

In My Gold Rush Adventure, the children learn by chance that their great-grandfather emigrated and became a gold digger in Canada, where they still have family, including a great-aunt, who invites them to visit her in the Canadian wilderness. Niels Nørløv Hansen directs his first kids’ film from a screenplay by Lars Mering, Claudia Boderke and Michael Obel.

The cast is also new: Rasmus Botoft, Lærke Winther Andersen, Zlatko Buric, Bo Svenson, Signe Skov, Troels Malling Thaarup and five children, selected after 2,000 had been auditioned. Obel, who has produced the series since 2010, has also signed a 300 kg Canadian bear up for the location filming in Canada, which includes a goldmine that has been untouched since 1937. The local premiere is scheduled for 29 January 2015.

While My Sister’s Kids: My African Adventure [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – the tenth film in the franchise since 1966, directed by Martin Miehe-Renard – reached 414,662 admissions in 2013, Campeotto’s Father of Four: The Return of Uncle Sofus has taken 285,563 this year.

Based on Danish cartoonist Kaj Engholm’s comic strip, Father of Four first reached the big screen in eight features between 1953-1961, all directed by Alice O’Fredericks and produced by Henning Karmark for ASA.

Originally from a novel by John Habberton, the first four My Sister’s Kids instalments between 1966-1971 were scripted and directed by Annelise Reenberg, and were also produced by ASA.