Lemming, Film House Form Hamster Film for Germany (Cannes 2011)

CANNES – Dutch kids film producers Lemming Film and new German financing group Film House have set up a new joint venture, Hamster Film, to produce children’s films in Germany.

Lemming toppers Leontine Petit and Joost de Vries will run Hamster together with Dorothe Beinemeier, formerly a producer at Berlin-based Egoli Tossell.

The first titles out of Hamster’s cage include Boy 7, a boys’ adventure thriller, which Mario Giordano (The Experiment) and Andreas Schluter (Level4) are adapting for the screen and The Heirs of the Night – Nosferas, the first in a planned series of fantasy features based on the novels by Ulrike Schweikert. Heirs of the Night is being planned as an English-language franchise together with Philipp Kreuzer of co-producer Bavaria and is currently in development.

Hamster will be the third production group in Film House’s growing stable. The Frankfurt-based financier acquired a majority stake in Carlos producers Egoli Tossell earlier this year and has a minority stake in Munich firm Summer Storm Entertainment, headed by director Markus Kreuzpainter.