There's no end to Rölli – he returns with the Golden Key

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

23/07/2012 - “The classic element of fairy tales – adventure, friendship, courage and understand – remain the same, regardless of time and place,” said Finnish director Taavi Vartia (photo). After numerous television series he will shortly begin his first feature, Rölli and the Golden Key, for Finland’s MRP Matila Röhr Productions, UK’s Film & Music Entertainment (F&ME) and Russia’s Contact Media Group.

Originally Finnish actor-writer Allan Tuppurainen developed the troll character (Rölli = Finnish for troll) for TV in the 1980-90s. Finnish producer Marko Röhr, of MRP Matila Rohr Productions, bought the rights in 1989 and brought him to the screen in two local features, directed by Olli Soinio (1991) and Olli Saarela (2001).

“Rölli tales and songs are an endless source for stories,” explained Röhr, who lifted the brand outside Scandinavia with Finnish director Pekka Lehtosaari’s €6 million animated Rölli: Quest for a Heart) [trailer] (2007), also co-produced by F&ME-Film & Music Entertainment and Contact Media Group (the owner of the Solnetchny Dom Studio, where most of the film was made as hand-drawn animation).

While it took five years to complete Rölli – Quest for A Heart, the new “live-action musical adventure”, with CGI-animated animals, will be ready early 2013, backed by a wide selection of merchandise to support international promotion and marketing. Vartia wrote the story about Rölli growing up - “a fairy tale truly tailor-made for families, to embellish the blossoming market” according to Röhr. Denmark’s Nordisk Film A/S holds Scandinavian distribution rights.