New venture aims to broaden scope of family films in Germany

Dutch production outfit Lemming Film has struck a joint venture with Film House Germany.

Leontine Petit and Joost de Vries of Lemming and Dorothe Beinemeier of Film House head up the new initiative.

Hamster Film will be the third unit in which Film House Germany has a stake alongside Marco Kreuzpaintner’s Summer Storm Entertainment and Egoli Tossell Film.

Hamster Film aims to broaden the scope of children’s and family films on offer in Germany, developing attractive, high-quality genre cinema and TV drama, targeted for specific age-groups and rooted in current German culture.

Producer in charge is Dorothe Beinemeier, former producer at Egoli Tossell Film.

First titles include Boy, a thriller for young teenagers based on the novel by German duo Mario Giordano and Andreas Schlüter and The Heirs Of The Night – Nosferas, which is the first of a  series of vampire films for children. There are also plans for an ambitious English-language franchise based on the fantasy novels of Ulrike Schweikert, which is in co-development with Philipp Kreuzer / Bavaria.