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2 weeks ago
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EXCLUSIVE: Chinese producer-distributor Hishow Entertainment has been on an acquisitions spree, snapping up several prestige festival titles for distribution in mainland China, including Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, which it plans to give a wide theatrical outing before the end of the year.
The film, which premiered in competition at this year’s Cannes film festival, will first screen at China’s Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, taking place in Xiamen, November 13-16.
Hishow has also acquired French director Laetitia Dosch’s Dog On Trial, a highly-acclaimed debut feature that premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard; La Cocina, from Mexico’s Alonso Ruizpalacios, which premiered in Berlin; and Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano, a Venice 2023 competition title that was nominated in the Best International Feature category of this year’s Oscars.
Starting with Megalopolis, the company is planning to roll these titles out theatrically in late 2024 and early 2025. The company is also releasing several animation titles, including French animation Fireheart, directed by Theodore Ty and Laurent Zeitoun, and classic Japanese anime Road To Ninja – Naruto The Movie (2012), which is already on release.
“Our vision is to bring a diverse slate of quality films to Chinese audiences – not just the big titles, but also unique productions such as La Cocina and Dog On Trial,” says Hishow founder and CEO Wang Haiyi.
Although some international arthouse titles were performing surprisingly well at the China box office before the pandemic, the market has skewed towards local productions in recent years, with even some Hollywood films struggling to break through. As a result, few prestige titles are being acquired for theatrical release.
However, Wang believes that Chinese audiences, especially those in top tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, are ready for something different. “Very few Chinese distributors are focusing on arthouse movies, but we believe it’s time to use our branding and expertise in this area to re-introduce them to the China market,” says Wang, who previously released titles such as The Imitation Game, All The Money In The World and Zhang Lu’s Yanagawa in the China market.
Wang describes comedy drama Dog On Trial, about a lawyer defending a dog in court, as a film that is “interesting and funny, but also has a lot of themes that will resonate with Chinese audiences, who like topics and stories they can debate after watching the film.”
La Cocina, an adaptation of a 1950s play set in a Manhattan restaurant, has already screened at Beijing and Shanghai film festivals, where Wang says the film received a very positive response.
“We also believe there’s an audience for classic titles,” Wang continues. “We’ve built up a library of more than 100 classic international movies and plan to re-release some of them in China.”
In 2019, Hishow released Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Legend Of 1900 in China, a film that was produced more than two decades earlier but never previously released in China, which grossed an impressive $20m.
The Beijing-based company is also active in production of Chinese-language films and series, with upcoming titles including action thriller Mastermind, starring Louis Koo, and premium series My Dearest Stranger, directed by Lin Yu-Hsien and starring Wang Luodan and Bosco Wong.
Directed by James Hung, Mastermind is currently in post-production for release next year, while My Dearest Stranger is being released this autumn on Alibaba-owned streaming platform Youku and Chinese broadcaster CCTV’s primetime channel.
