PLOE – You Never Fly Alone will have it first market appearance by ARRI Worldsales at the Cannes film festival this year. The film was announced in development at Cartoon Movies in Lyon last March where a Co-production agreement with Trixter of Munich was announced as well as ARRI Worldsales agreement for the Stereoscopic 3D film slated for release in late 2015.

GunHil is the lead producer for the film, which script is written by Fridrik Erlingsson and to be Directed by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson (Undercurrent) and Co-Directed by Gunnar Karlsson, who also leads visual development for the film. Hilmar Sigurdsson and Haukur Sigurjonsson of GunHil are producing with Michael Coldeway of Trixter Co-producing.

ARRI Worldsales will be bringing first pre-teaser and artwork in progress to the market as well as the latest script version for interested distributors. ARRI is already reporting strong interest in PLOE which is expected to go into production by the end of the year.

PLOE – You Never Fly Alone tells of a plover chick that is born the latest of 3 siblings and is off on the wrong wing from the very start. When autumn comes and his family migrates to warmer climate, the young chick has not yet learned to fly. He faces harsh winter, cruel enemies and vicious elements which he has to battle with new friends.

For all those who missed our pitch and presentation at Cartoon Movies in Lyon we have uploaded the pre-teaser we made for that occasion to our site.

The purpose of this pre-teaser is to investigate our two main characters a bit and try to lure distributors and investors who were in Lyon to attend our presentation. We belief that we were successful as we had 96 people attending, where off exactly half where distributors, investors and sales agents! Just the people we were looking for and there are already serious inquiries from over 20 countries!

The pre-teaser is available here on the PLOE part of our site. Those who want to follow our progress on IMDB can bookmark this link where we will add production information as we progress with the film.

GunHil presented PLOEY – You Never Fly Alone at Cartoon Movies, the animated feature film forum in Lyon, France. At the presentation in Lyon, a Co-Production agreement with Trixter of Germany was announced along with a World Sales Agreement with ARRI Worldsales, marking a major milestone towards completion of financing of this great story of the little bird that hasn’t learned to fly when his family migrates in the fall.

Moritz Hemminger, Theatrical Sales Manager of ARRI Worldsales expressed his satisfaction of the contract and sited his thoughts on the script: “What a fantastic story! It has everything you’re looking for in a family feature animation. The outsider, who becomes a hero with the help of his friends, very touching and adventurous story!”

TRIXTER is a highly regarded animation and VFX studio with facilities in Munich, Berlin and Los Angeles, known for their work on films like Iron-Man 1, 2 & 3, Journey 2 and The Avengers, as well as having many years of co-production experience on major European animated films.

ARRI and Trixter have joined in a partnership placing ARRI and TRIXTER as a heavyweight in the animation sector, and are already receiving great interest from distributors and potential co-producers. PLOE is the very first project where the two Münich headquartered powerhouses join forces with GunHil.

PLOEY is a family feature film directed by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson (Undercurrent, Thicker than blood) and GunHil’s own Gunnar Karlsson who also is a visual director on the film, which script is written by Fridrik Erlingsson. The film is produced by Hilmar Sigurdsson and Haukur Sigurjonsson on behalf of GunHil and is expected to premiere at year end 2015. Gunnar, Fridrik and Hilmar where the main creators on Legends of Valhalla – Thor, Iceland’s biggest and commercially most successful film project to date.

The European Film Market in Berlin is approaching fast. Hilmar Sigurdsson, our CEO/Producer will be there from Friday February 8th until Monday February 11th. His schedule is filling up rapidly so please make sure you book your meetings in good advance. Distribution and sales are on the agenda and let’s count on him bringing home some good tidings for PLOE – You Never Fly Alone, our upcoming animated family feature film. Send us e-mail at gunhil@gunhil.com for bookings!

We will then officially stand on stage in Lyon at this year’s Cartoon Movie with PLOE – You Never Fly Alone and unveil a brand new pre-teaser where PLOE himself will appear animated for the very first time, if he manage to hatch from his egg in time! And General Falk might just throw in a little smile with his grim face, also a world’s first moving appearance by that vicious looking lead.

Music to the pre-trailer, courtesy of Sena, is by Bragi Valdimar Skúlason and Gudmundur Kristinn Jónsson, performed by Iceland’s Own Superstar Paul Oscar. The song is entitled “Gordjöss” which is a local slang meaning “gorgeous” – what else!

Cake and Gunhil join forces for development and distribution of Space Stallions

Space Stallions, the instant 80s parody hit presented by GunHil at Cartoon Forum in Toulouse in September has landed an international development and distribution deal with the signing of an agreement between CAKE in London and GunHil Ltd. of Reykjavik, Iceland.

“As darkness is covering the multiverse, far away in the galaxy of the wild stallion, the divine Mother mustang calls upon Sun-Ray for help as the spark of life is in great danger. An elite force is formed by the Global Council. They are the Space Stallions, sent on a mission to save the galaxy from the über-evil demon of darkness, Destructo.”

The appearance of Space Stallions at Cartoon Forum is probably best described by the words of Sandra Freisinger-Heinl of Branded Entertainment Online: “In addition, the ‘boys’ of the Icelandic production company GunHil received outstanding applause. They won over the audience with Space Stallions, an adult parody of 80s science-fiction cartoons and thus almost placing the audience in turmoil.”
Space Stallions is targeted for 18-48 year-olds.

Space Stallions has been a phenomenal hit on YouTube since it was released earlier in the year already with close to 650,000 views. The concepts were originally created as a short film graduation project from the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark and have on top of its on-line success, enjoyed festival screenings and accolades at numerous animation festivals around the world, including Annecy.

CAKE and GunHil have now joined forces to expand the development of the property to better suit the needs of the international market and furthermore, CAKE will handle worldwide distribution of the upcoming TV series. The originating authors of the property, Thorvaldur Gunnarsson and Agust Freyr Kristinsson will join the process of bringing this exciting satire to the world.

Tom van Waveren, CEO & Creative Director, along with CCO & Managing Director Edward Galton and Grainne McNamara, VP Development and Sales, are heading the project on behalf of CAKE.