Sugar23 Signs ‘Dead Talents Society’ Filmmaker John Hsu

EXCLUSIVE: In the midst of the successful festival run of his sophomore feature, the supernatural horror comedy Dead Talents Society, Taiwanese writer-director John Hsu has signed with Sugar23 for management.

Premiering to critical acclaim in the Midnight Madness section of this year’s Toronto Film Festival, where it was the runner-up for the Midnight Madness Award, Dead Talents Society takes place in an afterlife where ghosts gain recognition by scaring the living, with the ultimate goal of becoming urban legends. The film won both the Audience and Best Director Awards at Fantastic Fest, as well as the People’s Choice Award at Sitges, and was recently nominated for eleven of Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, the most of any film this year.

Hsu’s feature directorial debut, the psychological horror Detention, is set during Taiwan’s White Terror era of the 1960s. The story follows follows two students, Fang Ray-shin and Wei Chong-ting, who become trapped in a nightmarish version of their school. As they try to escape, they uncover dark secrets about an underground book club that defied government censorship, leading to tragic consequences.

Hsu’s first feature effort dominated the Taiwanese box office in its 2019 debut, and won five of the twelve Golden Horse Awards it was nominated for, including Best Screenplay and Best New Director.