‘Kung Fury’s’ David Sandberg, ‘Dead of Night’s’ Higton Brothers, Supercell Co-Founder Mikko Kodisoja Lead Immersive-First Slate at Finland’s Fireframe Studios (EXCLUSIVE)

Finland’s Fireframe Studios, a virtual production studio founded by gaming giant Supercell co-founder Mikko Kodisoja, is launching a full slate of immersive-first features that includes new films from David Sandberg (“Kung Fury”), the Higton Brothers (“Dead of Night”) and Kodisoja himself, making his directorial debut.

Launched by Kodisoja in 2020, and building on his success overseeing massive global gaming franchises including “Clash of Clans” and “Brawl Stars,” the Helsinki-based Fireframe is developing a series of original, high-concept IP designed for premium formats and immersive production. 

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Backed by a team of filmmakers, game developers and virtual production experts, the company says it’s pioneered a brand of immersive-native storytelling that merges “cinematic craft and real-time technology…to create bold, high-quality films that pull audiences deeper into their worlds.”

First up on the company’s slate is “Puzzle Box,” an English-language horror film starring Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Charlie Murphy that is written and directed by Kodisoja. Production is already underway at Fireframe’s Helsinki-based virtual production studio.

The film follows a fractured family that retreats to a remote winter villa, hoping to reconnect. But when the children discover a mysterious puzzle box hidden in the ruins of a neighboring house, they unknowingly unleash imprisoned spirits bent on fear, possession and death. As the box begins to feed, only sacrifice will stop its hunger.

Kodisoja, who co-founded and served as creative director at the multibillion-dollar mobile game developer Supercell, says that his first feature builds on his extensive experience in the world of gaming, where “story, character and world are built as one connected ecosystem, evolving naturally across film, games and immersive experiences.”

“Coming from games, my instinct was to build the world before the story,” Kodisoja tells Variety. “The puzzle box is a complex artifact designed to carry many stories, because the entities trapped inside it feed on something universal: the gap between the truth and the version of it we choose to live with. That gives us infinite dramatic territory and takes the story somewhere psychological almost automatically. 

“At the center of it is a family that can’t reach each other across a dinner table. The box feeds on what goes unheard. As a Finn, I knew exactly where to set that story,” he added.

“Puzzle Box” is the first in a slate of immersive-native films that includes “Dragonlord,” a new action-fantasy from David Sandberg, the writer, director and star of the viral action-comedy short “Kung Fury,” as well as an action-horror project from the Norwegian duo the Higton Brothers, best known as the creators of the Snapchat teen horror series and global sensation “Dead of Night.” Already wrapped and in post-production is the miniature-style book adaptation “Martina,” from director Diego Vazquez Lozano, introduced at Comic-Con Madrid 2025.

All Fireframe projects will take advantage of the studio’s purpose-built virtual production facility in Helsinki, which includes LED volume screens and custom technical workflows. The company’s technology directly captures native data, allowing films to be presented at the highest possible quality, not only in conventional theatrical and streaming formats, but also across all premium formats.

“For a long time, how films are captured and how they’re experienced later have been treated as separate things,” Kodisoja tells Variety. “We’re bringing those together from the start, so the film is designed for those experiences rather than adapted to them later.

“For us, it’s still about building strong stories first, and then crafting impactful films around them, while designing both to work across different kinds of experiences from day one,” he adds. “When you do that, you’re not adapting a film to new formats later, you’re unlocking possibilities that weren’t there to begin with.”