Project Chopin is an international co-production using the music Polish composer Frederick Chopin. Two children travel from Warsaw to London on a magical piano accompanied by Chopin's greatest works. The movie's Polish-British directing team -- Martin Clapp, Adam Wyrwas and Marek Skrobecki -- met during the making of Peter and Wolf, where Clapp and Wyrwas created the animation and Skrobecki was responsible for the set design. The creative team includes Polish cinematographer Krzysztof Ptak and Chinese pianist Lang Lang.
The production team spoke about the film at the Polish Film Institute (PISF, www.pisf.pl) in Warsaw.
Project Chopin is an international production between Poland, Norway, France and Great Britain. The was initiated by PISF and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (www.mkidn.gov.pl). Agnieszka Odorowicz, the director of PISF, said, "Project Chopin is an important endeavor not only for the history of Polish cinema, but Polish culture overall. It's a universal project, setting news standards, and very innovative." Project Chopin is a part of the cultural program "Chopin's Year" scheduled by the Polish Ministry of Culture for 2010.
Project Chopin is the biggest animation film produced this year in Europe, with the total budget of 18 million PLN (€4.2 million). The majority of the financing comes from Poland: 2 million PLN from PISF (its biggest grant to an animation project to date); 2 million PLN from the Polish Ministry of Culture; and 4 million PLN from Polish Public Television TVP (www.tvp.pl).
The film is produced by the Warsaw based branch BreakThruFilms (www.breakthrufilms.pl), the London company founded and headed by Hugh Welchman, the producer of Peter and Wolf.
"During the works on Peter and Wolf we managed to gather a great crew: excellent animators, set designers and directors. This led me to an idea to take a step further. This step is Project Chopin, the second film in the world realized in the innovative stereo 3D technique," Welchman said. (The technology was first employed in Coraline directed by Henry Selick).
Project Chopin is produced in Łódź, with one of the biggest collection of props used for an animated film so far, and 20 sets designed for the film. The co-producers are TVP S.A., CANAL+, the City of Łódź, Storm Studio (Norway) and Denis Friedman Productions (France).
The premiere of the film is scheduled for early Fall of 2010.
Credits:
Directors: Adam Wyrwas, Martin Clapp & Marek Skrobecki
Script: Marianela Maldonado, Robin Todd & Geoff Lindsey
Producer: Hugh Wechman
Line Producer: Gareth Unwin
Co-operating Producer: Magda Bargieł
Production contact:
BreakThruFilms (Poland)
Plac Zamkowy 15/19 m.12
Warszawa
00-267
Tel: +48 604 781 881
+48 668 685 415
Production office of ‘Projekt Chopin':
ul. Siewna 15
94-250 Łódź
Tel: +48 42 25 32 808
