Yahoo Lifestyle ‘Queen Of F*cking Everything’, The Debut Show To Emerge From Europe’s New8 Collective, Lands First International Deals
EXCLUSIVE: Queen of F*cking Everything, the first show to emerge from the New8 European broadcasting collective, has sold around Europe.
Rabbit Films, which is producing and selling Queen of F*cking Everything, has sold the Finnish show to ZDF (Germany), NPO (Netherlands), VRT (Belgium), NRK (Norway) and RUV (Iceland) on the eve of a Content London showcase.
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Written and directed by Akvaariorakkaus star Tiina Lymi, Queen of F*cking Everything follows high society fixture Linda Saarniluoto (Laura Malmivaara), who wakes up one morning to find her husband Mikael (Jussi Nikkilä) missing, probably dead, leaving her in debt to the tune of millions of dollars. Forced to steal to survive, she starts from small-time theft but is then drawn deeper into Helsinki’s criminal underworld, until she rises to be given the moniker that comprises the show’s title.
Producer Minna Haapkylä said the series was pitched to Finnish pubcaster YLE around the time the New8 was being formed, and so it made sense to introduce it to the new European broadcasting collective.
“This was the first thing they wanted to try probably because they thought it has international appeal,” she added. “[The plot] could happen to anyone over the world and is universal, with crime and a woman main character, so they saw potential in that story.”
Launched at the Rome MIA market in October 2023 with first projects unveiled a few weeks later at Content London, the New8 is a collective of networks from eight countries that its founders call the “biggest drama collaboration in Europe.” The octet of broadcasters said they would meet regularly and co-produce eight TV series a year, with the initial agreement lasting three years.
While Rabbit Films is delighted to have fed into the collective, Jonathan Tuovinen, the firm’s SVP, International, said constructing the deal has been anything but straightforward. Not all of the eight members of the New8 have signed up for Queen of F*cking Everything and deals with those that have had to be negotiated in turn.
“We have had to fight and negotiate each of these deals separately with the collaboration of YLE,” he said. “We wish it could have been all of them on board but it has just been like a free market negotiation.”
But he predicted the collective will “develop and find its voice” soon and described the move as a “big win which we are super happy with.” It comes with European co-productions in vogue given the strife that has hit the U.S. industry the past couple of years. A UK distribution report last week found that a 28% dip in U.S. co-pros last year was arrested almost entirely by international productions outside the States.
Personal and political motivations
Producer Haapkylä said she welcomed some input of New8 networks such as Norway’s NRK but the outline for Queen of F*cking Everything had existed for a long while inside Lymi’s mind.
Lymi’s motivations for getting Queen of F*cking Everything on screen were two-fold, she told Deadline, both personal and political.
First of all, the idea emerged from a personal experience she had leading her to “think about the justification of your own anger, disappointment or bitterness.”
“What are you justified to do when someone hurts you?,” she queried. “For me it was very important to have these social dilemmas inside the TV series.”
Secondly, Lymi wanted to spotlight “polarization” in Finnish society over the past few years since the far-right Finns Party made gains in parliament, which was followed by the cutting of YLE’s budget. “Nordic countries have had this very beautiful democratic system with welfare and I myself am part of it but now I find the values of society changing so much,” she added.
She stressed, however, that “polarization” is “not the main line” to be taken away from the show and said that the dramedy genre is a natural fit for her creative instincts, with the best comparators being American shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
“The logline, ‘There is no love for me in this world instead I’m the Queen of F*cking Everything’ was what I was working with so [the main character] chooses a super cold heart and no closeness,” added Lymi. “For her it is more risky to let someone into her heart than to go sell trucks in Spain, or cheat the government.”
Lymi has starred in a number of Finnish projects down the years along with directing the movies Myrskyluodon Maija and Happier Times, Grump. Today, she said she “does not miss acting” and relishes being behind the camera.
“I love to create the whole world and be responsible for it so it feels more whole,” she added. “I have some strange strengths and weaknesses but [while directing] I think my weaknesses disappear and instead the best parts of my talent are emphasized.”
Queen of F*cking Everything is a Rabbit Films production for YLE, written and directed by Lymi and produced by Haapkylä, Tiina-Mari Pitkänen and Olli Suominen. The premiere will be on VoD player YLE Areena on New Year’s Day followed by the linear broadcaster YLE1 five days later. Rabbit’s past projects include Mobile 101 about the rise and fall of Nokia for MTV3 Finland, which sold to multiple broadcasters and streamers including Disney+ in various territories.
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