EXCLUSIVE: Games of Thrones is done, but the man who brought Jamie Lannister to life is kicking up a production storm.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has joined up with scribe Joe Derrick to form Ill Kippers Productions, I’ve learned. Along with ex-PR guru Jeffrey Chassen as VP and Head of Development, the U.S and Europe-based shingle will focus on both scripted and unscripted projects for a multitude of platforms.
Jeff and I have worked together for almost 10 years and there is a clear synergy between our tastes and ambitions,” Coster-Waldau told Deadline of bringing publicist Chassen onboard for the new company as a pivotal executive. “This is a brand new journey for all three of us but we all share the same work ethic, drive and passion for storytelling,” the multiple Emmy nominee added. “When I learned that Jeff had chosen to leave the PR game I didn’t hesitate to offer him this new role and I was delighted when he accepted”
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That new journey and new role for the trio and Ill Kippers includes an adaptation of the recently released YA novel We Are Lost and Found among the entity’s early offerings. Published back in September, the coming of age book from author Helene Dunbar is set in the Big Apple of 1983, as the Reagan Era and the AIDS epidemic both begin for a trio of friends. The project will likely be primed for a big screen life, but a TV series is currently a possibility too.
Also in the works for Leeds United supporters Coster-Waldau and Derrick is CONS, a documentary examining the proliferation of fan conventions, which the former certainly learned a thing or two about in his GoT career – including at San Diego Comic-Con this summer after the HBO aired its somewhat controversial series finale. Along with a Coster-Waldau narrated and Derrick penned crime podcast in conjunction with LA-set Vespucci Group, the Ill Kippers founders are in the process of completing a feature script on famed Danish polar explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen.
Having fronted the May 31 released Brian De Palma directed thriller Domino, which came out just weeks after GoT concluded its eighth and final season and with several other jobs lined up, the UNDP Goodwill Ambassador intends to star in the Mikkelsen film, schedule permitting.
A client of imPRint Public Relations co-founder Chassen’s since 2010, Coster-Waldau is repped by WME, Denmark’s Lindberg Management and attorneys Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.