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UK production firm Goldfinch Studios has launched a Hong Kong arm with a slate of projects including a Sergei Bodrov (Mongol: The Rise Of Genghis Khan) martial arts movie.
Goldfinch Neon is launching in earnest at this week’s Hong Kong film market Filmart. The firm is headed up by CEO Kirsty Bell (Le Mans: 3D) and Marketing and Operations Director Phil McKenzie (The Ice King) and will be run locally by Michael Leeder (Fearless), a producer and consultant who has been based in Hong Kong since 1990, and the company’s Head of Sales and Distribution, Andy Green who formerly headed online platform Distrify Media.
The company will look to develop, finance and co-produce local and Asian-inspired projects with international appeal. First projects on the slate include a big screen re-interpretation of the international stage show Stomp with Luke Cresswell, co-creator of the original show, directing. The film, currently in development, will be set in and around Hong Kong. Also on the slate is an as-yet untitled martial arts feature from producer Phillip Rhee, co-creator of 80s-90s action franchise, Best Of The Best. The feature will be produced under Rhee and his partner John Baca’s production banner 707 Entertainment together with Goldfinch Neon, with the climax of the film due to be set within Shanghai’s MMA arenas.
At Filmart, Goldfinch Neon will also be discussing martial arts fantasy feature The Three Swords Of Master Chan, now in development and set to be directed by veteran filmmaker Bodrov, Oscar-nominated for action-epic Mongol. The film will be set in 17th Century China and East Asia with the intention of bringing on board an international cast. The team is looking to structure the project as a UK-China co-production. Meanwhile, development project CRAKO will combine a heist premise with a zombie strand and be set against the sport of parkour.
Goldfinch Studios was a producer on 2017 biopic Mad To Be Normal starring David Tennant and Elisabeth Moss and on upcoming feature dramas Waiting For Anya, starring Angelica Huston and Noah Schnapp, and Carl Hunter’s Sometimes Always Never starring Bill Nighy, Sam Riley and Jenny Agutter. Goldfinch, previously a UK EIS financier, teamed with Alan Latham’s UK sales outfit GSP Studios in 2017 to form Goldfinch Studios. A division within that, Bird Box Finance, provides debt financing to the film, television, animation and games industries.
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