A beloved reindeer will soar once more in Niko — Beyond The Northern Lights, the third installment in the popular European franchise. Global Screen has just picked up international sales rights to the CG animated feature, which arrives more than 10 years after Niko & The Way to the Stars (2008; a.k.a. The Flight Before Christmas) and Niko — Little Brother, Big Trouble (2012).
Directed once again by Kari Juusonen, the third movie will find Nko the flying reindeer making a play to become part of Santa Claus’ top flight team. When a talented girl reindeer beats him out for the job, Niko must choose between trust and loyalty. Jørgen Lerdam is co-directing, from a screenplay by Juusonen, producer Hannu Tuomainen and Marteinn Thorisson.
Niko — Beyond The Northern Lights is a pan-European co-production, reuniting franchise producers Tuomainen and Antti Haikala at Animaker in Finland with co-producers Emely Christians at Ulysses Filmproduktion in Germany (The Amazing Maurice, Two by Two: Overboard! / Ooops! 2), Moe Honan at Moetion Films in Ireland (Two by Two: Overboard!) and Anders Mastrup at A. Film Production in Denmark (The Little Vampire, Checkered Ninja).
“After having sold the first two Niko movies to practically every territory around the globe, we firmly believe that this new heartwarming story will also be a hit with buyers around the world,” said Alice Buquoy, Senior VP of International Sales & Acquisitions for Global Screen. “We are very pleased that our Niko, who is now a pre-teen, will be joined by a female company in the third part.”
Global Screen is a brand of distributor Telepool, which will once again be releasing Niko’s latest adventure in Germany. The first two outings totted up more than 750,000 admissions in that country alone, having sold to 120 different territories. Niko’s debut pic was distributed in the U.S. by The Weinstein Company as The Flight Before Christmas; Grindstone released the sequel stateside.
Niko — Beyond The Northern Lights is supported by the Finnish Film Foundation, German Federal Film Fund, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, German Federal Film Board, Eurimages, Business Finland, Screen Ireland, Danish Film Institute, Section 481, Estonian Film Institute, Telepool, Nordisk Film, BAC Films, MTV-CMore, RTÉ, DR and Global Screen.
[Source: Deadline]
