Finland's MRP: Matila & Rohr Productions is planning to build the country's first digital cinema. 'We are building it from scratch,' Marko Rohr told Screendaily, 'it will have three screens and is the next obvious step for us in our ambitions to be involved in every part of the film chain.'

The site will be constructed as part of a new high-tech IT building in the centre of Kajaani in the North of the country, an area already well known for its booming IT and technology community. Work will begin in Aug 2002 and the site should be ready to premiere MRP's comedy Pigs And Pearls in Aug 2003.

The cinema will feature both analogue and digital facilities, but is constructed for the digital projection. The site will service some 55,000 potential cinema-goers, including the largest military base in Finland.

Rohr and Ilkka Matila's MRP already encompasses the production labels Talent House, Juju Media, Arctica Underwater Lights and holds a major share in FantasiaFilmi as well as Finland's first digital postproduction facility Digital Film Finland, which also handled the postproduction of MRP's recent box-office hits Olli Saarela's fantasy Rolli and Aku Louhimies' romantic Lovers And Leavers