ABOUT COOL BEANS
Cool Beans BV is an independent film production company, established in 2008 and headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Cool Beans and its producers Richard Claus, Chantal Nissen and Rienkje Attoh have a proven track record of successful international co-productions with a certain preference for films with socially relevant topics and the family entertainment genre.
Cool Beans has produced more than theatrical 20 feature films in collaboration with leading companies such as Disney, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., Fox, Sony Classics, Icon, Propaganda Films, and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. These films have benefited from sources of public funding, such as the FFA and regional funds in Germany, the Netherlands Film Fund and the Abraham Tuschinski Fund, the Danish Film Institute, France’s CNC, Eurimages, Creative Europe, and various rebate programs in South Africa, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Luxembourg.
Cool Beans is a member of NAPA (the Netherlands Audiovisual Producers Alliance), and its producers are members to the Dutch Academy for Film.
Richard Claus
rc@coolbeanspix.com
Chantal Nissen
cn@coolbeanspix.com
Rienkje Attoh
ra@coolbeanspix.com
PRODUCTIONS
PANDA BEAR IN AFRICA
A fun and adventurous young Panda travels from China to Africa to rescue his best friend, Jielong the Dragon, who has been kidnapped. A fish-out of water comedy, a coming of age story.
AINBO - SPIRIT OF THE AMAZON
Ainbo was born and grew up in the deepest jungle of the Amazon. One day she discovers that her homeland is being threatened by illegal and ruthless mining. Using the help of her spirit guides Vaca and Dillo she embarks on a journey to save her land and save her people before it’s too late.
AN ACT OF DEFIANCE / BRAM FISCHER
In apartheid-ruled South Africa, a renowned lawyer struggles to hide his secret affiliation to the nation's chief resistance movement - as he takes on defending a group of its arrested members, including its leader, Nelson Mandela.
THE LITTLE VAMPIRE 3D
Rudolph, a 13-year-old vampire, meets Tony, a mortal boy his age who loves old castles, graveyards and vampires. Tony helps Rudolph to fight against a notorious vampire hunter, and together they save Rudolph's family and become friends.
THE PRICE OF SUGAR
The Price Of Sugar tells the alternately gripping, romantic and heart-wrenching story of Sarith and Mini-Mini as they grow up on the sugar plantations of Suriname in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Where Sarith is the most beautiful woman in the colony, the mulatto Mini-Mini is forever in her shadow, slave to her own half-sister.
THE HEINEKEN KIDNAPPING
The inside story of the planning, execution, rousing aftermath, and ultimate downfall of the kidnappers of beer tycoon Alfred "Freddy" Heineken in 1983, which resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for an individual.
BLACK BUTTERFLIES
In Apartheid-torn South Africa, poet Ingrid Jonker (Carice van Houten) struggles tragically in search of love and a sense of home.
THE SILENT ARMY
Child soldiers in Africa are at the fore in this tale of a white restaurant owner in an African town bordering a conflict zone. When his son's African friend Abu is abducted, he sets out to find the boy, and walks right into a training camp exploiting children like Abu.
THE THIEF LORD
After their mother dies, two boys flee their mean aunt and head for Venice, Italy, where they meet Scipio, the mysterious "Thief Lord." Along with a small gang of abandoned kids, the boys start robbing the rich to support themselves.
THE LITTLE VAMPIRE
A lonely American boy living in Scotland makes a new best friend, a fellow nine-year-old who happens to be a vampire..
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS
An American man unwittingly gets involved with French werewolves who have developed a serum allowing them to transform at will.
MUTE WITNESS
A mute make-up artist working on a slasher movie being shot in Moscow, is locked in the studio after hours. While there, she witnesses a brutal murder, and must escape capture.
PRODUCERS
RICHARD CLAUS
Richard Claus studied at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. After graduating he worked as a cameraman, directed and shot several TV documentaries and wrote and directed two theatrical films. In 1986 Richard co-founded and served as the managing director of the German production and distribution company Delta Film in Berlin and produced several mostly German language theatrical feature films. In 1994 he co-founded the Cometstone companies with offices in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, which he was running until 1999. During this period, he lived predominantly in Los Angeles. In 2000 Richard moved back from the US to Europe, producing with Cool Beans in the Netherlands, and between 2008 and 2017 Richard produced five theatrical films in South Africa. Richard also produced and directed the animated movies The Little Vampire 3D (2017), Ainbo - Spirit of the Amazon (2020) and Panda Bear in Africa (2023).
CHANTAL NISSEN
Chantal Nissen holds a Master of Arts in Television Studies from the University of Amsterdam, complemented by a minor in American Studies and in Journalism, with a focus on viewer experiences. Her career reflects a dynamic passion for storytelling, collaborating with writers and directors across a wide range of genres, formats and techniques. In addition to feature films, her work spans children's live-action as well as human interest television, long- and short-form documentaries and video installations, and she has collaborated in and across most European countries, as well as in South Africa, Australia and the United States.
RIENKJE ATTOH
Rienkje Attoh started her professional career as a Broadcast Journalist, working in news and entertainment for the BBC, ITN and Euronews. In 2012 she decided to follow her lifelong passion to produce, and secured a spot at the reputable National Film and Television School (NFTS). During her first year she became one of the three recipients of the inaugural Prince William Scholarships in Film, Television and Games, supported by BAFTA and Warner Bros. She crowdfunded to make her first feature A Moving Image (2016). Later So & So Productions, was awarded a BFI Vision Award to develop its slate of film projects. Her second feature, Pond Life, starred Daisy Edgar-Jones, had its general release in the UK in 2018 in that same year she developed and co-produced the adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s NOUGHTS + CROSSES (2019) with Mammoth Screen, for the BBC. In 2020 she became one of Screen International’s UK and Ireland’s Stars of Tomorrow. During the pandemic she made the hit TV series YOU DON’T KNOW ME (2021) for the BBC and Netflix.
SO & SO PRODUCTIONS
So & So is a boutique London based company developing Film and TV. Founded by Rienkje Attoh, it thrives on her passion for telling bold and untold narratives, while showcasing and supporting new talent. In development is an untitled biopic about Queen Victoria’s God daughter, Sarah Forbes Bonetta with SunnyMarsh (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Edith’s Daughter (Cynthia Erivo), and a fantasy series about the Warrior Queen Mother of the Ashanti Empire, Yaa Asantewaa, co-created with Home Team’s Bennett McGhee, with writer Kara Smith and Universal International Studios. She is also reuniting with writer/director Shola Amoo, on his third feature, Floored.
SO & SO PRODUCTIONS
Rienkje: info@soandsoprod.com
KATUNI
Katuni Animation is the animation arm of Cool Beans, located in the heart of Amsterdam, specializing in high-quality computer-animation. Together, Katuni and Cool Beans have produced The Little Vampire 3D (2017), Ainbo - Spirit of the Amazon (2021) and Panda Bear in Africa (2024), all of which had world-wide releases and immediately put Katuni on the map as the Dutch animation studio with the widest international reach. Currently Katuni is in active development of several new animated movies, both 3D and 2D.
Haarlemmerweg 317-H
1051 LG Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Richard: rc@katuni.eu
Chantal: chantal@katuni.eu