08/10/2007

Stockholm-based NonStop Sales has secured international sales rights for the English-language animated family feature Gnomes and Trolls, executive produced by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow (scriptwriters of Toy Story).

Currently in production, Gnomes and Trolls is directed and co-written by Robert Rhodin, who has worked in 3D animation for the last 15 years on features that include Commander Hamilton and Borrowers. The film tells the story of Junior, a teenage gnome who embarks on a heroic journey together with his best friend Sneaky, a paranoid and neurotic crow. Their adventure takes them across vast landscapes and into epic encounters with bizarre animals.

The music is composed by Anders Bagge (vocal producer for Jennifer Lopez and Celine Dion) and Oscar Merner, and will be voiced by, among others, EG Daily (Happy Feet), Greg Berg (Chicken Little) and André Sogliuzzo (The Polar Express).

Gnomes and Trolls is the first computer animated feature produced by the Swedish company White Shark AB, run by the five partners: Rhodin, Carl Johan Merner (producer of Gnomes and Trolls), creative director Martin Olsson, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow and Anders Bagge.

“White Shark is creating its own brand because of the exquisite quality of the animation and the special Scandinavian style combined with Hollywood storytelling,” said Sokolow. A 4x13-minute TV mini-series will also be available.

The film’s international premiere is set for February 2008. Non Stop is introducing the high profile animation project to Mipcom this week.

Other new products on NonStop’s line-up include a package of four Swedish classics: three from Ingmar Berman (So Close to Life, A Ship Bound For India and It Rains on Our Love) as well as the controversial 1952 Golden Bear winner One Summer of Happiness by Arne Mattsson.