Chestnut Man’s SAM Productions, Meta Film ready for Norwegian expansion

Danish fiction producers SAM Productions and Meta Film, led by Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen, are preparing to open a Norwegian production office with Norwegian staff.

Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen

SAM Productions and Meta Film announced a new Swedish outpost in September, as reported by C21, with producer Maria Dahlin joining as country manager for Sweden.

“We have already produced the Netflix series Ragnarok in Norway, and therefore know how to produce Norwegian content, but we are still investigating the best way to set up a business there,” Foldager Sørensen, CEO of SAM Productions and Meta Film told Nordiskfilmogtvfond.com.

The move is backed by Studiocanal, co-owners of SAM Productions, together with Foldager Sørensen and creators/writers Adam Price and Søren Sveistrup.

The Nordic expansion of SAM Productions and Meta Film has been under consideration for a while, but the process was accelerated by the streaming dispute over rights remuneration that came to a head earlier this year with rights association Create Denmark and the Danish Producers Association.

SAM Productions previously produced four to five Danish originals a year for the major streamers – including thriller The Chestnut Man – but hasn’t had a new order since September 2021.

The Danish production boycott with TV2 Denmark is now partly unblocked and Viaplay has extended a temporary agreement with the Danish union representatives. However, productions are still stalled with Viaplay and Netflix.

Foldager Sørensen said she expects her company’s turnover for 2022 to be “much lower than in 2021”, and outlooks for 2023 in Denmark “still look scary”, which explains her focus on Sweden and Norway.