11/01/2013 - Danish production outfit ASA Films, which revived the franchise in 2005 to close it this year, is refreshing it for another three installments with a new cast and crew

Danish director Claus Bjerre’s Father of Four – At Sea - the sixth installment of Danish production outfit ASA Film’s revival of the 1950s franchise, which took 412,000 admissions domestically last year – was announced to be the end of the affair.

Now ASA Film has confirmed it has signed with Danish pubcaster DRTV to stage another three features in the series in collaboration with local distributor, Scanbox Entertainment, the first with support from the Danish Film Institute.

However, both cast and crew will be changed – after six films, Bjerre will be replaced by Giacomo Campeotto (photo), and Jens Korse (Max) is new scriptwriter; Niels Olsen is out as the father, Jess Ingerslev as Uncle Anders, and  Lille Per, Mie, Ole and Søs, aged 6-16, will be substituted after castings next month (February) at the Danish Film Studio. “I never liked it anyway, it was both badly written and directed, but you have to live,” said Ingerslev.

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

Backed by Scanbox, Danish producer Henrik Møller-Sørensen and his ASA Film reinvigorated the popular characters, and his six movies have sold around three million tickets; the new as-yet untitled installment will shoot over eight weeks in May around Copenhagen, to open during the winter of 2014.