Following Help! I'm a Fish and The Ugly Duckling And Me!,Danish director Michael Hegner stays in animal kingdom for his next feature, The Way To The Stars.

Staged by Finnish productionhouse Animaker, and co-directed by Finnish director Kari Juusonen, the $7.7m(Euros 6.1m) CGI-animated feature - the most expensive productionever in Finland - is the story of a young reindeer who dreams offlying. He should have certain qualifications, as his father is allegedlyemployed in the Flying Force of Santa Claus.

Earlier this month, Animakerproducers Petteri Pasanen and Hannu Tuomainen received $757,439 (Euros 600,000)from Eurimages to support the feature, which is packaged in collaboration with Finland's Anima Vitae, Cinemaker, Germany's Ulysses and Europool, Denmark's A-Film and Ireland's Magma Films.The Finnish Film Foundation haschipped in a further $631,200 (Euros 500,000) for the budget.

Based on an originalscreenplay by Hannu Tuomainen & Marteinn Thorisson, The Way To The Stars follows the youngreindeer trying to stop a secret plan to destroy Santa Claus and the FlyingForce. The film will be ready for release in Finland around Christmas 2008, through local distributor NordiskFilm.

The producers have alreadysold the film to ten territories, mainly through co-production deals, such as inScandinavia and Germany. German international distributor, Telepool, willwork on the rest of the world, screening promo-reels at the AFM.

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