Global Flicks: Saudi Producers Beat Out Hollywood In Local Cinema
Asia: Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s Dear Jassi has been unveiled. The film is written by Amit Rai (OMG 2) and based on the reporting of journalist Fabian Dawson. The film is inspired by the tragic true story of Jaswinder “Jassi” Kaur and Sukhwinder “Mithu” Singh Sidhu, told in a Punjabi folk style.
Japanese comedian Shinagawa Hiroshi is set to direct Among the Dead. The project is the first co-production and co-financed venture between U.S.-based People of Culture Studios and Japan’s Yoshimoto Kogyo. The film is a found footage zombie movie following an undead apocalypse. The screenplay was written by Andy Cosby (Hellboy) and Charlie Danger Cosby. Other writing credits go to Brian Caldirola, Patrick Hasson, and Juan Carlos Saizarbitoria.
Dean Fujioka (Fullmetal Alchemist) and the Callum Woodhouse (All Creatures Great and Small) are set to star in Orang Ikan. The film was written by Singapore- and Indonesia-based Mike Wiluan (Buffalo Boys). The film is set in the Pacific in 1942. A Japanese soldier and a British POW are stranded on a deserted island and hunted by a mythological creature, the Orang Ikan. The lost soldiers must come together to survive. London-based SC Films International has picked up international rights to Orang Ikan.
Range Media Partners has signed Chinese actor, singer-songwriter, dancer, and fashion icon Lay Zhang. Lay rose to fame as a former member of K-pop boyband EXO before launching a solo career.
Trinity CineAsia has acquired the Chinese fantasy epic Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms for multiple territories. The film is directed by Wu Ershan (Mojin: The Lost Legend) and is based on the Chinese classic Investiture Of The Gods (Fengshen Bang). The film follows the story of an epic battle between humans, immortals, and monsters during King Zhou's overthrow at the Shang Dynasty's end. Highlight Entertainment Co. is handling international sales of the film.
Cobweb, directed by Kim Jee-woon, has been cleared for theatrical release in Korea. The film is a tribute to the Korean films in the 1970s and plays as a film within a film. The film stars Song Kang-ho (Parasite, Broker) as director Kim, who needs two more days of reshoots to craft a new ending to his latest film.
S.S. Rajamouli (RRR) is currently assembling a production team for a new movie about the birth and rise of Indian Cinema. The biopic still needs to be titled.
Veteran Korean actor Byun Hee-bong (Okja and Memories of Murder) has died at 81. Byun’s family confirmed that the actor died after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.
Webtoon’s crime-action story Knuckle Girl is being adapted as an original Amazon Prime Video film. The story follows a boxer named Ran, who fights school bullies and engages in illegal matches. When her sister is kidnapped, Ran fights her way through a brutal underworld to get her sister back. The film is directed by Chang(The Targe) and written by Yoo Gap-yeol (Emergency Declaration) and Jeong Byeong-sik (The Villain), who wrote the adaptation.
Europe: Spain’s Onza Distribution, with offices in Madrid and Miami, has seized international rights to the mini-series Allende, the Thousand Days, to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Chile’s first socialist president, Salvador Allende. The mini-series is being produced by Chile’s Parox (Invisible Heroes), collaborating with Mediterraneo Media Entertainment, Aleph Media, 1010 Mente Colectiva, and HD Argentina.
Madrid-based The Mediapro Studio has acquired Cimarrón, the Uruguay, Argentina, and Mexico-based production house and services company. Cimarrón founders Hernán Musaluppi, Diego Robino, and Santiago López will continue to operate the company.
Román Chalbaud
Latin America: Colombia’s most prominent producers have banded together to form PI, led by Cristina Gallego (Embrace of the Serpent). PI comprises the partnership of production houses Antorcha Films, Burning, Casatarántula, Ciudad Lunar, Evidencia Films, Inercia Películas, Laima, Madlove, Medio de Contención, Milagros, Mutokino, and Rara Cine.
Yo no moriré de amor, the feature debut of theatre actress Marta Matute, among the five titles selected by the Madrid Film School’s ECAM incubator program, has been boarded by Elastica Films. The family drama is lead produced by José Esteban Alenda and César Esteban Alenda’s Solita Films.
Prime Video Latin America has obtained streaming rights to Katina Medina Mora’s film Latido (Heartbeat), starring Marina de Tavira (Roma). The film follows Leonor a woman part of an organization that supports young athletes. For years, she has struggled to conceive and meets 16-year-old Emilia, played by Camila Calónico, who aces her ballet audition, but her world falls apart when she finds out she is pregnant.
Brazil has announced the selection of Picture of Ghosts / Retratos Fantasmas, the documentary film by director Kleber Mendonça Filho, as the country’s official submission to the Best International competition at the 96th edition of the Academy Awards. The film is directed by Mendonça Filho and is set in the urban landscape of Recife, the Brazilian coastal capital of Pernambuco. Grasshopper Film has acquired the rights for North American distribution.
Venezuelan filmmaker and playwright Román Chalbaud has died at the age of 91 in Caracas. Having directed 23 feature films, he was considered the most prolific Venezuelan filmmaker and was best known for his 1977 film The Smoking Fish / El pez que fuma.
Ernesto Martínez Bucio is filming The Devil Smokes (and Keeps the Burnt Match Heads in the Same Box) on location in Mexico City and the state of Jalisco. The film is produced by the director with Mandarina Cine. The film tells the story of five brothers who were abandoned by their parents and are left in the care of their grandmother who claims to see the Devil. The script is written by Martínez Bucio and Karen Plata Luna, and the cinematography is by Odei Zabaleta. The film will be completed in the second half of next year.
Middle East: Alaa Fadan and Ibraheem Al Khairallah, co-founders of Riyadh-based content studio Telfaz11 alongside Ali Kalthami spent years carefully preparing themselves and their company, which began as online videos. Saudi Arabia is the fastest growing box office with Telfaz11 leading the charge and beating Hollywood studios. Sattar released earlier this year has beaten Avatar: The Way of Water from the top spot, becoming the most successful local film of all time within two weeks. This includes both the releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer.
