Nordic prodco Nevis Productions was launched last week by co-founders Anni Faurbye Fernandez, Moa Westeson and Cindy Hanson. Fernandez talks about the company’s ambitions and starting up in a pandemic.

Anni Faurbye Fernandez

With credits including Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, Wallander, Wisting and Atlantic Crossing, producers Anni Faurbye Fernandez, Moa Westeson and Cindy Hanson have a strong track record in delivering internationally successful Scandinavian drama.

The trio have now set up a new production company, Nevis Productions, with ambitions to create high-end scripted content for both the Scandinavian and international markets. The new prodco is backed by London-based independent producer Nevision.

Here, Copenhagen-based Fernandez speaks to C21 about building the company, its development slate and how they are operating amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

How is Danish TV faring under Covid-19?
A lot of production companies are preparing to start shooting again but we need to know how we can do it and what precautions we must take. In Sweden, they haven’t locked down as we have, so they are actually still shooting. We are only in development but it will be interesting to see how it will be handled by the different production companies and the broadcasters. Of course, the productions where it’s not purely local are problematic. If you plan to shoot in Spain or other places overseas, it’s tricky how to handle that. It’s really tough times for everyone.

How did you come to establish Nevis Productions?
It was back in January when we started to do this, when the virus was not outside China. We had heard about the virus but I don’t think we could imagine what was going to happen over the next few months. When we did the deal with Nevision in January, we were planning to launch at Series Mania in March, but then, of course, the virus spread and we could see it was not such a good idea to go public about our company.

But we were at the Gotëburg Film Festival in late January where we had a lot of great meetings with people, broadcasters and talent. So we were up and running before it all went really bad with the virus. It looks a little more optimistic in Scandinavia now, we hope, and hopefully things will start to be better in the UK, Spain and Italy very soon, so we try to be optimistic even though it’s not the best time to start a company.

Moa Westeson

We are very fortunate that we are only in development with our projects, so I feel sorry for those companies that had to stop productions. In Denmark, there’s not been so much help from the government yet. I hope that will come because it affects a lot of people and smaller companies are being shut down.

How did you develop a partnership with Nevision?
I’ve known Nevision since 2015 when they invested in a feature film I produced in Denmark. Nevision is the perfect business partner. Even though we have a vast international network, it gives us a great advantage to fulfil our main ambition to produce English-language dramas alongside more national stories. But the English-language dramas will have stories rooted in Scandinavia. When I’ve pitched Scandinavian shows in the past, the reaction was, ‘It’s really great but can you do it in English?’ It will be interesting to see if we can fulfil our ambition but we have a great opportunity.

How does the Nevision relationship work?
What’s really great about them being a partner in Nevis is they are also producing. We are independent, not bound by any first-look deals. We will also look at their slate to see if they have any IP that could work in Scandinavia. We will definitely coproduce if it makes sense. We will work together as we were in one company because we have the same interest in moving shows forward.

What type of shows are you developing?
Our first international English-language show is Wake with Sofia Helin [The Bridge]. It probably will have some roots in Scandinavia but it’s still a universal story about working on a hospital ship, where you’re stuck with the same people every day. It’s such an exciting universe that can work everywhere. We did a deal with writer Jamie Brittain [Skins] and we’re in really early development. Some production companies have shot dual-language series, which is something we could also see if that works. But right now, our shows will either be Danish, Swedish or English-language shows. On our Swedish show Neighbourhood Watch, we will also have English-speaking characters.

Cindy Hanson

With offices in Copenhagen and Stockholm, how will you run the company?
We will all work on all the productions. We have different skills but what is very important for us is we know each other, we’ve worked together for several years, we have the same taste. We have the same work ethics and we also know how we react when we are under stress. For me, it’s very important we have the same view on how to handle work and collaborate. We will work as a team and talk through each project to see how to divide ourselves. On Danish series, I will be closer to the production and Moa will be close to production in Sweden.

How has the pandemic affected your development process?
When I worked at Cinenord, I was based in Copenhagen and they are based in Stockholm, so we actually had a lot of Skype meetings. On [Norwegian crime drama] Wisting, we often had writers’ room Skype meetings for hours. So we’re used to it. It’s strange we’ve not seen each other physically for three months but we are on Skype every day.

What challenges do you foresee facing the industry in the coming weeks and months?
There will be many challenges. Right now it’s difficult to get insurance, so what happens if they start to open the country again and have to shut down again and people become ill? There are many challenges, at least for the next month. Hopefully it will be more under control but we won’t know probably until next year. Planning is always difficult on productions so it’s a huge challenge everyone is facing. There’s also a lot of money being lost, and will there be any help from the government in Denmark? We don’t know yet.

How do you see the TV landscape changing in Scandinavia?
The SVoD platforms have changed the landscape a lot and we will see even more change. We are fortunate we have collaborations with some of the platforms that aren’t in Scandinavia yet, so we are in a constant dialogue with them, trying to find the right project.

The biggest challenge is that maybe there are too many shows and the quality might fall. We also need to think differently and ask ourselves why we want to tell this story. Is it different from what we’ve seen before? Is it edgy? For me, it’s all about the characters in the TV series business. It’s going to be very exciting to see if it affects the quality.

Maybe there will be a gap in shows on television in the same way there will be a gap in feature films coming out due to the virus. But it seems that broadcasters, at least in Scandinavia, are starting to communicate again about new shows and not just handling the immediate crisis with productions being shut down and delayed.

Sofia Helin in The Bridge

How have you seen the Scandinavian market grow beyond Nordic noir?
It’s all about finding the right IP, the good story, the characters you want to follow through each episode for a number of seasons. The stories can be anything if it’s good quality writing and directing. For me, it’s important the talent has the story at heart, that it’s something they really want to tell. A good example is [Swedish extremism drama] Kalifat, which I really liked. It’s important to find something that somehow, some way is different from what you’ve seen before because there’s so much out there.

Where might we be in nine months’ time?
Hopefully, we won’t get the second wave of the virus; that’s what everyone is worried about. But we still have to prepare for that and hopefully we will be more clever, having gone through all of this. We will travel less. I travelled a lot before this happened. Almost every week I was on a plane. Is it really necessary to travel? Can we have the meeting online instead?

For us, six to nine months ahead, we hope to shoot Neighbourhood Watch in April next year. We have a smaller new idea for a Danish show that if it goes well, we could shoot in the fall, because it’s a very contained story with fewer characters. While we wait to see what will happen, taking the virus into consideration, it’s great to try to do smaller shows and shortform series to get something out there that doesn’t take 18 months to finance and develop. To combine the bigger things and the smaller things will be the way forward.