Has the actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas made a Danish version of the acclaimed French series ‘Dix Pour Cent’ – known in English as ‘Call My Agent!’ – without paying for the rights?
‘Agent’ is co-produced by TV2 and Zentropa and is both written and directed by the well-known star of the popular series ‘Crime’ and ‘Britannia’ along with the ‘Department Q’ films.
Both ‘Call my agent!’ and ‘Agent’ shows an acting agency in transition. In the original version, the agency’s founder dies in the first episode – in the Danish version, Esben Smed’s character inherits it from his mother.
In both versions, famous actors play versions of themselves. In the Danish version, the cast includes Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulrich Thomsen, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Dar Salim and Magnus Millang, the cutie from ‘Druk’.
Creator: this is an original occupation
Nikolaj Lie Kaas has already emphasized that his production is based on a completely original idea.
“I’ve always thought there’s a lot of potential for original stories in my industry, and I’ve always been fascinated by people and characters who can’t even see the obviously wrong choices they’re making,” he said in a statement.
“It is a comedy on top of a drama, because I have deliberately taken care not to surrender to the pure drama, which is the right way to describe a person who is about to fall apart. But my mantra is that you have to be able to laugh out loud.”
PR agency: Same arena, but very different
Likewise, Have Communication, which is responsible for PR for the series, has emphasized that the show is not a Danish version of ‘Ring til min agent!’
“No, it’s not,” the company’s CEO, Michael Feber, told CPH POST this morning. Speaking from Berlin, where the series will have its world premiere at 6.30pm as part of the Berlin International Film Festival, he added: “It’s an original show.”
However, Feber admitted he had never seen the original French version, first broadcast in 2014, and sounded concerned when CPH POST informed him that his description of the show’s “essence” – “Danish celebrities play versions of themselves ” – would be equally valid. of ‘Call my agent!’.
“I’m 99 percent sure it’s not a Danish version,” he told CPH POST, before promising to ask further questions.
“‘Agent’ was written before ‘Call My Agent!’ came out, so there were concerns that they might be similar because the arena is the same. But if you watch it, you’ll see that it’s very different. While ‘Call My Agent!’ is mostly drama with a bit of comedy, ‘Agent’ is as much comedy as it is drama,” he later explained.
13 countries pay for the rights to remake it
So far, ‘Dix Pour Cent’ has spawned a large number of remakes – which is good news for rights owner Netflix, which acquired the show in 2015 and went on to make a fourth season in 2020, with a movie and fifth season on the way. this year.
The increased exposure and wider recognition encouraged manufacturers from South Korea, India, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, UK, Poland, Turkey, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Germany and Spain to all pay the price to remake it. .
But the Berlin International Film Festival (February 16-26) clearly hasn’t smelled a rat, choosing ‘Agent’ for its Berlinale series.
There is no doubt that it has a rather similar name.
Other Danish interest
Other Danish films at the Berlinale are Malene Choi’s debut ‘The Quiet Migration’ (Panorama Section/Best Film Award) and Amalie Maria Nielsen’s graduation film ‘The Shift’ (Generation Kplus/Teddy Award).
At first glance, the subject of ‘The Quiet Migration’ – the difficulties faced by Korean adoptees in Denmark – sounds like ‘Return to Seoul’, a film that is currently taking the world by storm with insanely good reviews.
Four other Danish films will be premiered: the documentaries ‘Apolonia, Apolonia’ and ‘Twice Colonized’ and the feature films ‘Copenhagen doesn’t exist’ and ‘Superposition’.
Source: The Nordic Page