Animated Film 'The Unicorn That Said No' Sells to Multiple Territories Before AFM Debut

The Playmaker Munich has lined up a string of international distribution deals for the animated feature "The Unicorn That Said No," with the film set to have its market premiere at the American Film Market in Los Angeles.

Buyers on board so far include Unlimited Media for the Baltic states, WWE Rights for Benelux, KMBO for France and Grand Entertainment for Motion Pictures for the Middle East. M2 Films has taken Poland, Idea Film has picked up Romania, Another World Entertainment has Scandinavia, Pack Magic has Spain and Orjinlab has Turkey.

In Germany, the film will be handled by Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany, which plans a release on Jan. 1, 2027.

The movie is adapted from "Das Neinhorn" by Marc-Uwe Kling and Astrid Henn, a book that has been translated into more than 25 languages. The story follows a "sweet, grumpy unicorn" who can no longer stand the pink, idyllic world of his unicorn family and heads off to Nowhere. There he unexpectedly makes new friends, and together they must rescue the king's daughter from her tower so he can return home with his new gang.

Kling, Johannes Weiland ("The Gruffalo's Child") and Studio Soi share directing duties, and Kling wrote the screenplay with Marcus Sauermann. Kling also voices the unicorn in the German version. The German voice cast includes Nora Tschirner, Torsten Sträter and Karoline Herfurth.

X Filme Creative Pool, known for "Run Lola Run" and "Goodbye, Lenin!," and Studio Soi, whose credits include "The Gruffalo" and "The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball," produced the film in co-production with Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany. The producers are Uwe Schott, Nicole Kellerhals and Carsten Bunte, while Steffen Schier, Margret Mackuth and Julia Hayungs are co-producers. Felix Raffel composed the music, and Dota Kehr wrote the main song.

Funding support came from MFG, MDM, BKM, FFA and Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film.

The market premiere is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Nov. 11 at AMC Century City in Los Angeles. During the market, The Playmaker Munich will be based at the Fairmont Century Plaza in the city.

Sylvia Edelmann, head of sales at The Playmaker, said, "It's wonderful to see so many territories on board before the film has even screened. The book is a hit with readers of all ages around the world, and we can't wait to bring this sweet, grumpy unicorn to even more audiences at AFM."