EFM: Roger that! New Finnish company will focus on action and horror
- Helsinki-based Roger! Pictures has announced its first line-up of three features by Finnish director Marko Mäkilaakso, including Viking – Rise of the Warrior
Established last year, Finnish production outfit Roger! Pictures signed its first co-production and financing deal following the American Film Market in November for Finnish director Marko Mäkilaakso’s Viking – Rise of the Warrior, with Hollywood’s Epic Pictures Group.
At the European Film Market in Berlin, the company founded by Finnish producer Temu Virta, Mäkilaakso and executive producer Tero Kaukomaa (Blind Spot Pictures) has announced its first line-up of three features. Besides Viking – Rise of the Warrior, this includes another two films by Mäkilaakso: Night of the Witch and The Troublemakers.
Roger! Pictures will focus its attention on action and horror pictures that have "strong and entertaining stories with high-quality visuals", according to Virta, managing director of the Helsinki-based firm. “We have a solid slate of films in development and are currently building a reliable, first-rate production pipeline for genre films.”
The director of War of the Dead [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Mäkilaakso will direct Viking - Rise of the Warrior; the 8th-century action adventure follows a Viking warrior who refuses to participate in a massacre of defenceless Christian monks, thus bringing about the death of his young son. He wants revenge.
An action comedy written by Mäkilaakso and described as being ”in the style of Bud Spencer-Terence Hill and The Cannonball Run”, The Troublemakers depicts a heist in a Las Vegas casino and the robber’s escape as he is chased by mobsters, the police and a biker gang. In Night of the Witch, a witch returns after 200 years to avenge the burning of a young woman accused of being a sorceress.
Kaukomaa, who has been running Blind Spot Pictures since 1997 – and for the last two years with Iron Sky [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tero Kaukomaa
interview: Timo Vuorensola
interview: Timo Vuorensola
film profile] director Timo Vuorensola as a partner – will executive-produce the three films. Besides Iron Sky and Finnish director AJ Annila’s Jade Warrior [+see also:
trailer
film profile], he has co-produced films by Danish director Lars von Trier, and Swedish directors Jan Troell and Pernilla August.
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