EXCLUSIVE: LA-based Northern Lights Studios is launching at the European Film Market with “a mission to globalize the next wave of Nordic cinema”.
Founded by veteran producers Christian D. Bruun, an executive producer on Jesse Eisenberg’s The End, and former Lee Daniels Entertainment exec Asger Hussain, who worked with Daniels on Precious and The Paperboy, the film and TV company will look to identify, develop, and globalize Nordic stories and talent for the international market.
The company starts out with a slate of 20+ film and TV projects drawn from Nordic source material, spanning drama, genre, and commercially-oriented features. Upcoming projects include an original feature based on a real-life Formula 1 story.
The duo is working directly with authors, publishers, and rights holders in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Greenland. Day-to-day operations for Northern Lights Studios are led by Hussain and Bruun. Indonesia-based Dane Bo H. Holmgreen, President & CEO of Viking Sunset Studios Bali, is an early investor and will provide physical production space for shoots.
Hussain was most recently a producer on boxing feature The Featherweight with Stephen Lang. Bruun was previously writer-director-producer of doc Blue Gold: American Jeans, narrated by Ed Burns.
The Nordic region continues to punch above its weight on the global film stage thanks to creatives such as Ruben Ostlund, Joachim Trier, and Thomas Vinterberg, and established producers such as Zentropa.
“The Nordic region has produced some of the most enduring modern stories in film and television,” said Bruun. “By packaging projects for the global market, the company is positioned to participate meaningfully in both creative and financial upside.
“We are taking stories that are deeply rooted in Nordic cultural heritage and reimagining them as global film and television,” added Hussain. “The goal is to preserve what makes them distinctive, while giving them the scale and ambition to travel.”
“Northern Lights Studios is exactly the kind of globally focused, high-quality IP-driven studio the industry needs,” said Bo H. Holmgreen, President & CEO of Viking Sunset Studios Bali. “With the infrastructure and partnerships in place to deliver projects at an international level. As a Dane, I am immensely proud of our storytelling heritage. Bringing Scandinavian projects to our exotic locations and large soundstages is a thrilling evolution.”
