03/08/2011

Norwegian director Arne Lindtner Næss’s €3.2 million kid pic, Magic Silver 2 – Scandinavia’s first live action feature in 3D – will be presented as a work-in-progress at the upcoming New Nordic Films market (August 17-20) during the Norwegian International Film Festival.

Swedish international distributor NonStop Sales, which is taking the film to Haugesund, has already licensed the production to German-speaking territories (Eurovideo) and Spain (Flins Y Piniculas). Norsk Filmdistribusjon will cater for the local release on December 1.

The follow-up to Magic Mountain 1, which was launched in Norway in November 2009 to exceed 350,000 admissions domestically, is in the hands of a veteran director of Norwegian children’s films – among Næss’ credits is the Junior Olsen Gang franchise.

Originally an award-winning Christmas television series, produced and transmitted by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK in 1999, and aired again in 2001, 2004, and 2008, Magic Silver I was also staged at an Oslo theatre.

Gudny Ingebjørg Hagen and Thomas Moldestad scripted the story of young Queen Bluerose who lives with the Blue Gnomes on Blue Mountain. When the tiny community is threatened by a dangerous glacier, she sets out to find the Blue Horn, a magical instrument that can change the weather and perhaps save them all.

Shot in mines at Modum and Franzefoss, and at Oslo’s Norsk Folkemuseum – Norway’s largest museum of cultural history – Magic Silver 2 is produced by Jørgen Storm Rosenberg and Lasse Greve Alsos, for Storm Rosenberg, and the producers also hooked up with the UK’s Vision3 to provide an extra dimension.

”It is a great example of how 3D can work on lower budget productions – it demonstrates the amazing impact creative stereography techniques can have whatever the finance,” said Matt Smith, of Vision3, who has worked on such films as include Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and TT3D.