NENT Group Aiming to Ramp Up International Slate
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With studios in the U.S. and the U.K., the Scandinavian major NENT Group is becoming ever more global with Filippa Wallestam, who became COO of the company and heads up originals, both local and international, along with content acquisitions and programming.
Wallestam, who started in this position in October, spoke to Variety about NENT Group’s global ambitions for the coming years while attending Content London to look for acquisitions, production and co-production opportunities.
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“We’re done about 20 originals this year and we plan on doing a lot more going forward, especially more English language series — we already have a handful in the pipeline including two non-scripted series and a documentary,” said Wallestam.
In the vein of its first international hit, the L.A.-based comedy “Swedish Dicks” which Peter Stormare and Keanu Reeves, the company is aiming for projects combining Nordic ideas and stories with international potential.
Case in point: one of the scripted projects in development which Wallestam is working on came from a best-selling Swedish author and she got Erik Feig at Picturestart on board to co-develop it into an international show. Earlier this week, NENT Group also announced “Perfect People” with Adi Hasak (“Shades of Blue”) attached as showrunner and executive producer. The show is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by British author Peter James.
As NENT Group will be making roughly twice as many originals in the near future, Wallestam said the banner will be increasingly looking to broaden its scope and explore diverse genre beyond crime, including romantic drama and comedy series.
The company has already made the U.K. its priority market within the last year. Jakob Mejlhede Andersen, who is the CCO of NENT Group took on the role of CEO of NENT Studios UK in the fall and is overseeing the banner’s U.K. joint venture with FilmNation, DRG (including Atrium TV) and several high-profile projects.
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