{"id":108867,"date":"2025-10-30T13:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/108867\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:02:08","slug":"rita-ora-and-ella-purnell-board-animated-viking-girls-tale-viqueens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/108867\/","title":{"rendered":"Rita Ora And Ella Purnell Board Animated Viking Girls Tale \u2018ViQueens’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Rita Ora<\/a> and Ella Purnell<\/a> have been unveiled for the lead voice cast roles of Harald Zwart<\/a>\u2019s animated viking girls adventure ViQueens<\/a> as Sola Media<\/a> gear up to launch sales at the AFM.<\/p>\n

\n\tBilled as a high-energy adventure-comedy, ViQueens follows two fearless Viking girls, Ingrid (Purnell) and Hedvig (Ora), as they defy tradition to return a stowaway boy to China.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir journey spans icy fjords, Byzantine intrigue, and the fabled Silk Road, blending Viking grit with ancient Chinese wisdom, unexpected alliances, and a touch of magic.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnnie Award-winning composer Christophe Beck, whose scores for Frozen and Frozen II are known to hundreds of millions worldwide, with other credits including Buffy The Vampire Slayer, has written the original score for the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tSola Media has unveiled a first look for the film as it gears up to launch international sales in L.A.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tViQueens<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZwart Arbeid<\/p>\n

\n\tThe feature marks Dutch-Norwegian director Zwart\u2019s first animated feature after live-action titles such as World War Two drama The 12th Man; fantasy adventure The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and The Karate Kid, starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith.<\/p>\n

\n\tPurnell\u00a0arrives fresh from Yellowjackets, with past voice roles including Jinx in the hit animated series Arcane, while UK pop artist Ora\u00a0lent her voice to the character of Wondering Blade in the Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight series and was also in the voice cast of Pok\u00e9mon: Detective Pikachu.<\/p>\n

\n\tSola Media will unveil an exclusive teaser at the AFM for the film, which is scheduled for delivery in the last quarter of 2026, with a home territory release slated for December 26, 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditional cast include\u00a0Steve Speirs\u00a0as King Erik,\u00a0Anton Lesser\u00a0as the scheming brother Lars, and\u00a0Alan Carr\u00a0as the Bard, a lyrically challenged royal scribe.<\/p>\n

\n\tViQueens is produced by\u00a0Veslemoey Zwart\u00a0of Zwart Arbeid (The 12th Man, Troll,\u00a0and\u00a0The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones), with executive producers\u00a0Torgeir Sanders\u00a0of Gimpville (Troll, Troll Hunter),\u00a0Robert Chandler\u00a0of Space Age Films\u00a0(The Amazing Maurice, The Canterville Ghost),\u00a0Peter Clausen\u00a0of OPCM (Lilyhammer, Jo Nesb\u00f8\u2019s Harry Hole, Troll and Billionaires Island), and\u00a0Andrew Williams\u00a0of Vamonos and\u00a0Solveig Langeland\u00a0of Sola Media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs a Norwegian, I was often urged to make a Viking film,\u201d said director Harald Zwart. \u201cBut the usual dark, violent portrayals never appealed to me.\u00a0When Veslem\u00f8y brought me the idea for ViQueens, it offered a fresh perspective\u00a0\u2014 a story about how Norway<\/a>, once feared, is now best known for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize. That transformation, imagined through the journey of two brave young girls, completely captivated me. It was the Viking story I had been waiting to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cViQueens delivers\u00a0exactly the kind of\u00a0striking storytelling\u00a0we\u2019re passionate about championing,\u201d added Langeland, Managing Director of Sola Media. \u201cIt\u2019s fresh, fun and emotionally resonant \u2013 with rich visuals, cross-cultural themes and a world-class team behind it. This is the kind of film that will travel widely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tZwart Arbeid \u2013 a tongue-in-cheek name that means \u201cunder-the-table work\u201d in Norwegian \u2013 is the joint company of wife and husband team Veslemoey Ruud Zwart and Harald Zwart.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith countless award-winning commercials, music videos and features to their name, the Zwarts have built a reputation for high-quality storytelling across genres. <\/p>\n

\n\tZwart Arbeid also produced\u00a0Long Flat Balls, the most successful comedy franchise in Scandinavian cinema, and as well as World War Two epic\u00a0The 12th Man, which sold to over 100 countries and remains one of the highest-grossing films in Norwegian box office history.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company operates offices in L.A. and Norway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Rita Ora and Ella Purnell have been unveiled for the lead voice cast roles of Harald Zwart\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7269,33097,156,78302,409,111,139,5895,69,14915,78303,78304],"class_list":{"0":"post-108867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-animation","9":"tag-ella-purnell","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-harald-zwart","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-norway","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-rita-ora","18":"tag-sola-media","19":"tag-viqueens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}