The Finnish remake of THE REUNION (orig. title: KLASSEFESTEN) is a massive success

The original Danish version of THE REUNION (orig. title: KLASSEFESTEN) sold more than half a million tickets back in 2011 which encouraged Nordisk Film to launch a sequel, THE REUNION 2: THE FUNERAL, which sold 605,000 tickets last year. Now the success continues in Finland. The Finnish remake has proven to be a massive success and is expected to pass the 300.000 admission mark this weekend. It has already performed better at the cinemas than any other local release.
 
Rasmus Krogh, Nordic Acquisitions, was from the beginning excited about the Finnish remake: “We were of course supportive of the idea of doing a Finnish remake on such a successful Danish film and luckily the financiers were as well. The script was localized and a little more outrageous humor was added and – voila – a box office success.”
 
Katarina Nyman, Director of Film Distribution in Finland, explains about the process of making the film:  “A few years back producer Jesse Fryckmann was tossing around different ideas for comedies and one of Jesse's ideas evolved around a class reunion. I said to Jesse that a movie about such a reunion had in fact already been made and released with great success in Denmark. So, instead of trying to invent the wheel one more time, why not consider a remake?”
 
“Director Taneli Mustonen adapted the script, and spiced it up a bit to give it a local and a bit naughtier taste,” Katarina Nyman explains:  “Meanwhile, I told Jesse what I had learned from my Danish colleagues: that the chemistry between the 3 leads in the original film was the real key to the success.”
 
The Finnish remake of THE REUNION combines their most famous actor in comedian roles, Aku Hirviniemi, with the most prominent Finnish standup comedian, Sami Hedberg, and the most controversial radio personality with over a million radio listeners, Jaajo Linnonmaa.
 
Katarina Nyman says: “I thought the combination was great! Already when you are mentioning the names everybody immediately expects to be entertained.”

Read more about the release in this article:
http://www.cineuropa.org/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=287643
 
THE REUNION is produced by Nordisk Film’s associated partner in Finland, Solar Films.