Finland's Startup Scene goes to the movies in 3 upcoming titles


    I can’t tell if it’s a good thing or not, but Finland’s movie scene seems to be transitioning from “cut a hole in the ice and drown yourself” style dramas to corny plots 13-year-old boys probably think are awesome, including titles like the zero budget Star Wreck parody, 2010’s Rare Exports (Evil Santa uncovered by archeologists under a Finnish mountain), and 2012’s Iron Sky (Nazis on the dark side of the moon).

    Finland is still far from being called the Hollywood of the north, so without the resources of a developed movie scene three ridiculous upcoming movies are brushing up against the startup scene for financial resources and the can-do attitude.

    Here are ArcticStartup’s nominations for Best Picture:

    Big Game

    Recently the trailer to Samuel Jackson-starring Big Game hit the web, showing off the the premise of the plot: Air Force 1 is shot down by terrorists leaving President Samuel L. Jackson stranded in the elusive Finnish mountains, but protected by a Finnish kid with a bow and arrow in this Hunger Games meets Air Force 1. Reactions on the internet seem to be looking forward to a mindless action movie to pondering what type of movie Samuel Jackson wouldn’t do.

    Startup connection
    Vision+ is playing hollywood money in this action flick, announcing they’ve invested part of their €50 million revenue share fund into a number of startups …and this movie. No word yet if that buys Managing Partner and ex-Nokia CTO Tero Ojanperä a cameo.

    Iron Sky 2

    If you’re into Nazis in silly locations, you’ll be happy to hear that Iron Sky is back with a sequel where Sarah Palin something something Nazis riding dinosaurs in the center of the earth.

    Startup Connection
    The thing you have to appreciate about Iron Sky about is that it seems to be built by motivated people that are good at finding enthusiastic fans to finance their project. Their first film was a crowdfunded success when the masses were still catching up to what the idea of crowdfunding was all about, and today Iron Sky has released a really good blog post about how they structured and managed their successful $561,000 crowdfunding round with plenty of graphs and reasonings of, for example, why they released video of a Putin impersonator dancing.

    If doing any rewards-based crowdfunding I would read their blogpost as food for thought.

    Iron Danger

    If you’re into Finnish oral poetry or just watching ripped dudes on the silver screen, you’ll be a fan of Iron Danger, a film adaptation of the Kalevala, or Finland’s brand of epic Norse mythology. Our Hollywood sources say this movie will make you feel badass that you live in a frozen swamp.

    Startup Connection
    I was right there in the audience too but I’ll trust VentureBeat writer Dean Takahashi with the quote in his coverage of the announcement:
    “We have 150 to 200 people working on this, from Rovio and Supercell,” [Rovio evangelist Peter] Vesterbacka said. “We know how to make the best games on the planet. These guys grew up watching stuff like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. This is an epic trilogy.”

    No money is said to be moving from any game company to the film, but it will be interesting to see how animation on the mobile screen turns into the big screen.