Written by The Location Guide on May 6, 2016. Posted in General Interest

Iceland’s RVK Studios takes the plunge into Production Service

RVK Studios is fast becoming one of the largest production houses in Iceland, having produced feature films like The Deep, Jar City, Virgin Mountain, 101 Reykjavik and Everest. TV series include: Trapped, Iceland Got Talent and The Mayor, a comedy starring Jon Gnarr, the former Mayor of Reykjavik. The Studio is now taking its next step into production service to take advantage of the vast experience the production team has to offer.

RVK Studios has hired Petur ‘Peppi’ Sigurdsson to head the new division. Petur has been servicing international projects in Iceland for 16 years after returning from Los Angeles and has been a producer/UPM on projects such as: Game of Thrones, Fortitude, Amazing Race, Girl in the Café and Werner Herzog´s documentary, Into the Inferno. Petur’s list of advertising clients include Apple, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Porsche, VW, Lexus, Nissan, Cadillac, Subaru, Rolex, HSBC, Good Year, Yokohama, Harper´s Bazaar, Juicy Couture and many more.

The critically acclaimed Director, Writer and Producer, Baltasar Kormákur is Chairman of the company. Kormákur’s credits include the biographical disaster film Everest starring Josh Brolin and Jason Clarke, and the popular TV series Trapped which was picked up by The Weinstein Company for distribution rights in the United States. Kormákur’s latest film The Oath, is currently in postproduction.

Kormákur notes: “Petur is a fantastic addition to RVK and brings with him a vast knowledge of filmmaking in Iceland and also a wealth of experience in a variety of genres and budgets. With Petur joining RVK, we hope to pave the way for other filmmakers interested in a great Nordic cinematic experience, on and off the screen.”

The studio headquarters are located in Reykjavik, the nation’s capital.

Iceland currently offers a very attractive film incentive in the form of a 20% rebate on all qualifying expenditures, but only if a production meets specific cultural standards and incurs a local expenditure of 80% of its budget.

The incentive is likely to increase to 25% in January 2017 if a government proposal is passed.