06/09/2011

Father of Four has invited the family for a weekend trip to Sweden, where Danish director Claus Bjerre is counting on finding another box office hit, when Scanbox Entertainment Denmark launches his Father of Four-Back to Nature [+see also:
trailer
film profile] on October 6. The most recent chapter of the saga, Father of Four—In Japanese Mode), sold 430,000 tickets in Denmark last year.

In Bjerre, Thomas Glud and Lars C. Detlefsen’s new outing, Kaspar Kesje as Lille Per (pictured), Carla Mickelborg, Jacob Wilhjelm Poulsen, Kathrine Bremerskov Kaysen, Søren Bregendal, Niels Olsen and Jess Ingerslev find themselves river rafting, camping among bears, and exposing a gang of crooks.

”We wanted to see the beloved family in nature, sleeping in tents, cooking over open fire - away from the town house and everyday routines at school and work. However to find wild and grandiose nature, we had to go to Sweden,” said Bjerre, who has now kept the family together for seven years.

”The cast has been unchanged since the first film. We have not replaced the children,when they have grown older – instead we have written the stories to fit with their actual ages. Of course it puts limitations to the series,. On the other hand Kaspar is still fabulous as Lille Per, although he has long passed ten.”

Based on Kaj Engholm’s cartoon (which ran in Danish papers until 1988), the original Father of Four franchise of eight installments was produced between 1953-1961 by Danish director Alice O’Fredericks. An early cast member, Ib Mossin, attempted a revival in 1971, but his family reunion was a one-off event.

In 2005, ASA Film Productionproducer Henrik Møller-Sørensen, backed by Scandinavian distributor Scanbox Entertainment Sweden, released Bjerre’s version of Father of Four, the first in a series of five features, all with the characters modelled on the Fredericks films, which have taken between 300,000-500,000 admissions domestically.