Fisher King, the leading Finnish company behind some of Scandinavia’s biggest scripted hits including “Bordertown” and “The Helsinki Syndrome,” has gone bankrupt amid challenges that have thrown the Scandinavian TV industry into turmoil.
Beta Film, which acquired Fisher King in 2019 and subsequently launched the umbrella banner Beta Nordic Studios, said the company was declared bankrupt on Dec. 23.
Fisher King was founded in 2013 by executive producer Matti Halonen and chief visual officer Miikko Oikkonen. Over the years, the outfit was able to produce some of the region’s most ambitious drama series through international co-productions. The company’s recent titles include “Estonia,” a limited series directed by Swedish director Måns Månsson and Finnish director Juuso Syrjä, about Europe’s deadliest civil maritime disaster which killed over 850 people in 1994. Oikkonen was a showrunner and co-wrote the show.
Speaking to Variety, Beta Nordic Studios’ executive chairman Justus Riesenkampff said that in spite of its stellar track record,...
Beta Film, which acquired Fisher King in 2019 and subsequently launched the umbrella banner Beta Nordic Studios, said the company was declared bankrupt on Dec. 23.
Fisher King was founded in 2013 by executive producer Matti Halonen and chief visual officer Miikko Oikkonen. Over the years, the outfit was able to produce some of the region’s most ambitious drama series through international co-productions. The company’s recent titles include “Estonia,” a limited series directed by Swedish director Måns Månsson and Finnish director Juuso Syrjä, about Europe’s deadliest civil maritime disaster which killed over 850 people in 1994. Oikkonen was a showrunner and co-wrote the show.
Speaking to Variety, Beta Nordic Studios’ executive chairman Justus Riesenkampff said that in spite of its stellar track record,...
- 1/26/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Legendary Swedish star Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting, Mamma Mia!, Nymphomaniac) will be honored with the Leopard Club Award, a lifetime achievement honor, at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival.
Skarsgard will receive the prize on Aug. 4 at a ceremony at Locarno’s Piazza Grande and will take part in an audience Q&a on Aug. 5. In his honor, Locarno will screen Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (1990), Kjell Grede’s period drama in which Skarsgard plays Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the final months of World War II. The festival will also screen What Remains, Ran Huang’s crime drama, co-written by his partner Megan Everett-Skarsgard, which features Skarsgard and one of his actor sons, Gustaf (Vikings, Oppenheimer). Huang and the Skarsgards will attend the Locarno screenings.
The 72-year-old has successfully balanced a career as a European art house star. He has made...
Skarsgard will receive the prize on Aug. 4 at a ceremony at Locarno’s Piazza Grande and will take part in an audience Q&a on Aug. 5. In his honor, Locarno will screen Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (1990), Kjell Grede’s period drama in which Skarsgard plays Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the final months of World War II. The festival will also screen What Remains, Ran Huang’s crime drama, co-written by his partner Megan Everett-Skarsgard, which features Skarsgard and one of his actor sons, Gustaf (Vikings, Oppenheimer). Huang and the Skarsgards will attend the Locarno screenings.
The 72-year-old has successfully balanced a career as a European art house star. He has made...
- 7/10/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Having collaborated with Writer Frank McGuinness on a number of projects including their BAFTA-nominated short film The Stronger, Actor/Filmmaker Lia Williams returns to the director’s chair for another McGuinness-penned script in the form of Jsb Films produced historical prison drama Samovar. The story is an imagining of Swedish Architect and Humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg’s life spent behind bars in a Soviet prison and the development of a tender relationship he forms with a fellow inmate, who recounts to him the impact of humanitarian actions. It’s a fascinating rendering of the prison life of a man who remains quietly defiant of a bleak and brutal world and Dn is delighted to Premiere Samovar online accompanied by an interview with Williams about her ongoing working relationship with Frank McGuinness, the practical challenges of shooting alongside a working prison, and the empathetic understanding she has for the actor’s process.
- 5/9/2023
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
Sf Studios (“Margrete – Queen of the North”) and Swedish broadcaster Svt are partnering up with Beta Film (“Atlantic Crossing”) on “Raoul,” a drama series about the internationally renowned Swedish diplomate Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jewish people during World War II.
The six-part series is based on Ingrid Carlberg‘s August Prize-winning biography “Raoul Wallenberg: The Biography.” Jesper Harrie (“Bonus Family”), Måns Herngren and Carl-Johan Vallgren co-created and penned “Raoul.” The period drama will start shooting next year with Herngren directing. Beta Film is handling international sales on the historical series.
Wallenberg was born into the powerful Swedish Wallenberg family but was never included in the family’s business empire. Perceived as a carefree and socially gifted man, he showed tremendous courage and compassion in 1944, when he was given the rescue mission to protect Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Hungary. Within a few months, he was able to save tens of thousands through unconventional methods.
The six-part series is based on Ingrid Carlberg‘s August Prize-winning biography “Raoul Wallenberg: The Biography.” Jesper Harrie (“Bonus Family”), Måns Herngren and Carl-Johan Vallgren co-created and penned “Raoul.” The period drama will start shooting next year with Herngren directing. Beta Film is handling international sales on the historical series.
Wallenberg was born into the powerful Swedish Wallenberg family but was never included in the family’s business empire. Perceived as a carefree and socially gifted man, he showed tremendous courage and compassion in 1944, when he was given the rescue mission to protect Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Hungary. Within a few months, he was able to save tens of thousands through unconventional methods.
- 11/29/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
An interview with Dāvis Sīmanis, the director and Gints Gruber, the producer, give the arc of the film from inspiration to financing to international and U.S. distribution.
The Mover recounts the little-known, compelling true story of Latvia’s Žanis Lipke, a blue-collar worker honored as one of the ‘Righteous Among the Nations,’ an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Shoah to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis, alongside renowned fellow rescuers Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler. Hardly anyone would have predicted that Žanis Lipke, a completely ordinary worker, would miraculously become a hero.
In order to be able to support his family under wartime conditions, he worked at the German military aviation warehouses and supplemented his income by smuggling at night. Despite his family’s hardship under successive Soviet and German occupations, Lipke embarked on a carefully thought-out...
The Mover recounts the little-known, compelling true story of Latvia’s Žanis Lipke, a blue-collar worker honored as one of the ‘Righteous Among the Nations,’ an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Shoah to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis, alongside renowned fellow rescuers Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler. Hardly anyone would have predicted that Žanis Lipke, a completely ordinary worker, would miraculously become a hero.
In order to be able to support his family under wartime conditions, he worked at the German military aviation warehouses and supplemented his income by smuggling at night. Despite his family’s hardship under successive Soviet and German occupations, Lipke embarked on a carefully thought-out...
- 11/26/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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