News

President Anant Singh has closed international deals for China Star’s big budget fantasy film starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Fan Bingbing with Im Global and Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Im Global will sell the project in Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Japan, South Korea, Israel and the Middle East.

Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute in North America, the UK, Australia, English-speaking Canada, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand and the West Indies.

Distant Horizon acquired international rights from Hong Kong-based China Star in Cannes to the story about a group of superheroes with unique powers based on the ancient novel Fengshen Bang (loosely translated as Creation Of The Gods).

It is scheduled to open in China on July 29 on more than 15 000 screens.

VFX artist Koan Xu directed League Of Gods and the cast includes Louis Koo, Angelababy and Andy On.

Im Global founder and CEO Ford said: “We are delighted to be involved...

Fantasy film from director Koan Xu stars Jet Li [pictured].

Distant Horizon has picked up international rights to Hong Kong-based China Star’s big-budget fantasy action movie, League Of Gods, starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Fan Bingbing.

Directed by VFX artist Koan Xu, the film revolves around a group of superheroes with unique powers and is based on the ancient novel Fengshen Bang (loosely translated as Creation Of The Gods). The cast also includes Louis Koo, Angelababy and Andy On.

The creative team on the project includes composer John Debney (Jungle Book), animation director Randall William Cook (Lord Of The Rings), sound designer Brent Burge (The Hobbit) and editor Wayne Philip Wahrman (I Am Legend).

“We have been tracking League Of Gods from development stage and what has emerged is an action-packed visual spectacle that combines China’s best talent with an award-winning international creative team,” said Distant Horizon president Anant Singh.

“The film has...

Like all of Marvel’s cinematic ventures, the upcoming Iron Man 3 ‘international, crisis thriller’ will feature product placement from its many high-profile marketing partners this summer. And during the recent Consumer Electronics Show, Tcl, the largest TV manufacturer in China, showcased its partnership with Tony Stark’s apparent “Smart TV choice” in the hotly-anticipated threequel. “Now that we’ve established ourselves through online sales with leading U.S. retailers like Amazon, Best-Buy and Costco, we’re focused on increasing our in-store presence and kicking off a new global marketing campaign. The partnership with Marvel Studios on Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” is one example of how we'll share our products with U.S. consumers in 2013. Tony Stark’s Smart TV choice in the next installment of Marvel Studios’ blockbuster franchise, the Ultra HD China Star 3D TV™ features active 3D technology, multi-touch, intelligent and dynamic backlight, and an ultra-high brightness of 800 nits.

John de Mol’s Talpa Media and News Corp.‘s recently formed content development and investment vehicle Puji Star Media are digging deeper into China. The companies have launched a joint venture dubbed Talpa China Star to produce and distribute local versions of formats culled from Talpa’s catalog. Talpa’s flagship show, The Voice, was produced locally as The Voice Of China earlier this year by News Corp-backed Star China Media. (In July, Star China hooked up with investment and asset management firm Puji Capital to form Puji Star Media.) Season 1 reached 500M viewers and Season 2 is moving forward. Other Talpa formats to successfully cross over to China include I Love My Country and Sing It.