Lemming Film reveals upcoming production slate amid restructure

Leading Dutch independent production company Lemming Film reveals upcoming productions late amidst restructuring, promoting producers Erik Glijnis and Tom van Blommestein to the new positions of head of film and head of TV series respectively

Production is now almost complete on David Verbeek’s €5.3m feature The Wolf, The Fox And The Leopard, shot in Luxembourg, Croatia and Taiwan and about a young woman found living among wolves. Intriguingly, its cast includes renowned Japanese director Naomi Kawase in one of her first acting roles. 

Lemming is also producing Michiel ten Horn’s new comedy romance Any Other Night starring Gillian Jacobs and Marwan Kenzari. The Dutch-German-Canadian production is due to shoot early next year.

On the minority coproduction side, Lemming is partnering with Greek outfit Heretic on Miguel Angel Jimenéz’s The Birthday Party starring Willem Dafoe.

The Dutch outfit is a partner on new Brazilian movie The Secret Agent, a political thriller directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and starring Wagner Moura.

On the German front, Lemming is part of the combo on Ido Fluk’s jazz-based movie Köln 75, sold by Bankside Films.

In the Nordics, Lemming is a Dutch partner on John Skoog’s Värn, majority produced by Swedish powerhouse Platform Produktion. Lemming is also working with Danish outfit Snowglobe on Beginnings, the new divorce drama from Jeanette Nordha.

Meanwhile, in Latin America, the company is involved in Chocobar, the latest feature from Lucrecia Martel which is in post-production.

Lemming is one of the founding partners of indie alliance The Creatives, working alongside France’s Haut Et Court, Belgium’s Versus Production, Norway’s Maipo Film, Germany’s Razor Film, Israel’s Spiro, France’s Unité, the US’s Masha, Germany’s Komplizen and the UK’s Good Chaos to develop and fund film and TV together.

“Every Monday, we meet each other and have at least an hour to talk about different subjects,” Petit said of the collective, previously backed by Fremantle. “All of us know an enormous amount about international coproduction but also how to develop very high-quality stories both on the feature film side and the drama series side.”

Under van Blommestein’s watch, Lemming is also ramping up its slate of TV series with both VoD platforms and the public broadcasters. Two high-profile international projects are in development and shortly to be announced.

The company is making Bennie for RTL’s Dutch streaming service Videoland. Created by Barry Atsma and Karen Host Pellekaan, the series is billed as a light, heartwarming story about a family with a neurodiverse child. It is currently in post-production. Also in production is Tim Oliehoek’s drama Rust en Vreugd [Peace And Quiet], a comedy drama featuring characters brought together as gardeners with allotments.

Lemming is now planning a second and third series of hit medical drama Day And Night, based on a concept originally developed by Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig and directed by Joram Lürsen.

A version of this story originally appeared on our sister site Screen

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