Whatever Pictures Sells 'Crème de la Crème' to ORF-Enterprise — SkimNews
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- ORF-Enterprise acquired international distribution rights to 'Crème de la Crème,' a Finnish comedy drama produced by Whatever Pictures and commissioned domestically by YLE.
- 'Crème de la Crème' follows Joonas, a young dairy farmer who sets up a sperm bank business with friends to rescue his failing farm; it is written and directed by showrunners Jukka Vidgrén, Topi Koljonen, Henna Rinnekangas, Juuso Laatio, and Anna Heinämaa.
- ORF-Enterprise's Armin Luttenberger called the series 'playful and irreverent,' contrasting it with the crime, darker tones, and visual restraint Nordic drama is typically associated with internationally.
- At Mipcom, Whatever Pictures also presented 'Three Fires,' a border thriller set in North Karelia, and 'Ice House,' an international assassin thriller co-written by Marteinn Thorisson and Puranen.
- Whatever Pictures and Norway's Rein Film are co-developing 'Silent Herd,' a Sápmi-set crime series set during polar night, with Sámi director Ken Are Bongo and writer Jens Martin Mienna leading the project.
- The 'Silent Herd' producers said key creatives are Sámi themselves and the series follows Sámi cultural protocols, with producer Aleksi Puranen emphasizing that its themes of violence, shame, and revenge are 'genre territory,' not 'Sámi traits.'
Why it matters: ORF-Enterprise's pickup of 'Crème de la Crème' gives a quirky Finnish comedy a path to international buyers, with the distributor framing its 'Finnish identity' paired with universal themes of ambition and economic pressure as a strong international combination. The broader Whatever Pictures slate also signals a company deliberately spanning genres, from irreverent comedies to culturally grounded Sápmi noir developed under Sámi cultural protocols.
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