Egmont Imagination To Be Shuttered
Egmont Imagination, the international animation arm of Danish production and distribution company Egmont Entertainment, will be closed, according to a report in VARIETY. The announcement comes on the heels of Egmont joining forces with Danish film and television producer Nordisk Film in mid-August 2002. The new company will now be known as Nordisk Film. Kenneth Plummer, former head of Egmont Entertainment and new managing director of Nordisk Film, told VARIETY: "[Egmont Imagination] will be phased out, and its projects absorbed by other parts of Nordisk Film." The core staff of around 20 will either be reassigned or let go. According to Plummer, Egmont Imagination was too international to fit in with the new direction of the combined companies, which is a focus on the Nordic market. "The aim is to create a framework that ensures the strongest productions and an optimal contact to the audience. We shall continue to work on effectiveness, and the most important challenge is to strengthen our position in the Nordic home market. We will increase the number of feature films, and we will strengthen our position in TV production," said Plummer. Nordisk Film has holdings in the film, television, home video and gaming markets, as well as production and post-production facilities and equipment. Egmont Imagination has signed recent co-production deals with U.S. animation studio Wild Brain, Canada's Studio B and Egmont's sister company A. Film, among others. They also partnered with Harvest Films and Link Entertainment to produce Barry Purves's award-winning stop-motion animated special HAMILTON MATTRESS.