HKIFF Heats Up

Kadokawa
Picks Up
Marley
Kadokawa Pictures
has acquired from
Fortissimo Films all
rights within Japan of
Marley, the documentary on the
legendary reggae superstar by
Kevin MacDonald, director of
documentaries One Day in September
and Touching the Void,
and The Last King of Scotland,
starring Forest Whitaker and
James McAvoy.
Marley is scheduled for theatrical
release in North America
continued on page 5
INSIDE
Feature: Euros at Filmart �������������������6
Executive suite: Albert Lee����������������� 8
Director Q&A: Peter Chan�������������������9
Reviews �������������������������������������������� 10
About Town ���������������������������������������� 5
W hile
By Karen Chu
M a rch 21, 2 0 1 2
Pusher
A strong cast lends interest
to this remake of Nicolas
Winding Refn’s Danish thriller
By Deborah Young
caPturing
some of the abrasive
edginess of Nicolas
Winding Refn’s
career-launching 1996 Danish
thriller, on which it is based, the
London-set remake Pusher struggles
to rise above standard drug dealer/
gangster fare and succeeds, but only
in part, thanks to its strong cast lead
by Richard Coyle. With Refn as executive producer,
a goodly dose of the original tension and existential
angst comes through, even if the cult magic does
not. It marks the first English-language picture
by culturally versatile director Luis Prieto, who
followed his Spanish feature debut with two Italian
teen romances. U.S. rights have been acquired
by the Weinsteins for their VOD-oriented label
Radius-TWC, and video seems the most probable
outlet after a European theatrical run.
Small Screen Looms Large
Dwindling DVD markets and the rise of cable outlets throughout Asia leads
to flurry of TV deals on day two of the Hong Kong Filmart By Gavin Blair
IPtV and the growing
number of cable channels in
Asia are becoming increasingly
important sales outlets
for companies at Filmart, while
the lack of 3D content available
means titles in the format are in
demand.
The collapse of the DVD/Bluray
market in most territories
has left studios increasingly
reliant on theatrical revenues,
but the new distribution platforms
are beginning to compensate
for at least some of the lost
income from disc sales.
“More people are watching
video through new technologies,
such as iPads, smartphones
and Internet TV.
Filmart is going to see a shift
toward becoming a market for
content that will be consumed
on these new devices,” said
Richard Coyle turns in
a strong lead performance
as a small time
drug dealer whose
life is spinning out of
control.
1
Gordon Cheung, president of
Mega-Vision Project Distribution,
and a 35-year industry
veteran.
Cheung also suggested that
the situation was difficult
for mid-budget productions
at the market, with the P&A
for theatrical releases being
prohibitively expensive. He sees
the tentpole films continuing to
thrive in theaters, while lowbudget
fare will be distributed
through new media channels.
“There are so many new
cable TV channels starting
up in Taiwan, Hong Kong
and Korea that there is a big
demand for content,” reported
Masaaki Saito, senior vp of
CREi, a subsidiary of Japan’s
TBS. “One Hong Kong telecoms
company that we met with is
launching five new free-to-air
REvIEW
The action is concentrated in one nightmarish
week in which small-time pusher Frank (Coyle)
plummets into a downward spiral from which there
may be no return. He’s introduced selling hits of
coke at discos and strip clubs with his young mad
dog helper Tony (a livewire Bronson Webb, who
chalks up dramatic points in the hard-act-to-follow
role that was originally Mads Mikkelsen’s). Their
tough guy pairing has a component of camaraderie,
continued on page 10
fIlmart
№3
cable channels, and is planning
to expand that to 30 channels
within a year.”
“That company has also been
experimenting with selling
titles on DVD for the same price
as pirated copies. They’ve found
piracy was down 80 percent for
those titles,” said Saito.
“Because of censorship issues
that still exist around Asia, our
non-pornographic erotic titles
are attracting a lot of interest
from cable and Internet
platforms,” said Rena Kawazu,
assistant manager at CREi.
“We’re the only company that
offers Hello Kitty to documentaries
to soft porn.”
CREi, has sold martial arts
film Kunoichi – Ninja Girl and
erotic comedy Deco-Truck Gal
Nami to Hong Kong, as well as
continued on page 5
Edko
Snatches
Turn Me On
By Patrick Brzeski
In one of the bigger deals
of day two at Filmart,
UK-based Celsius Entertainment
has sold Norwegian
director Jannicke Systad
Jacobsen’s award-winning teen
sex dramedy, Turn Me On,
Goddammit to Hong Kong’s Edko
Films. Turn Me On won best
screenplay at the Tribeca Film
Festival 2011 and best European
film at Mons International Love
Film Festival 2012. The offbeat
coming-of-age story has already
achieved brisk sales in other
markets, inking deals for
distribution in the U.S. by New
Yorker Films, and in South
Korea, Australia and New
Zealand, Japan, Taiwan and
various European markets. thr