FINAS Scores Deals at AFM

SANTA MONICA: At the recent American Film Market, the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) made a number of deals for a series of feature films, including War of the Worlds: Goliath, among others.

Tripod Entertainment of Malaysia announced success with its stereoscopic 3D animated feature film War of the Worlds: Goliath, which has been picked up by Epic Pictures Group for global sales. Set for release in mid-2012, the animated movie features a hybrid 2D cel and CG animation approach by Tripod’s production crews in Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and Los Angeles. It is executive produced by Kevin Eastman, the co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and owner-publisher of Heavy Metal magazine.

“We’re thrilled to have Epic Pictures as the global sales agent for War of the Worlds: Goliath,” said Kevin Eastman, the executive producer. “They totally get our creative vision and story, and with Epic on board, we will reach the many thousands of fans waiting to see our little epic.”

Tuan Haji Mohd Zulkifli Wahab, the deputy director general of FINAS, said, “Today, Malaysia has the capability and capacity to be one of the leading hubs for content development. We have now reached an exciting milestone of maturity where Malaysia, collectively will need to cherish and value local world-class cultural contents, and help promote universally-appealing contents worldwide.”

FINAS also sold the features Vikingdom, The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines, 23:59, SeeFood, Between Two Skies and more. 23:59 has been confirmed by Thailand’s Sahamongkolfilm International for world sales rights to its first non-Thai film. Released this week and directed by Gilbert Chan, the film features a mysterious murder that happened in 1983 in an army camp. It was produced by Clover Films, Gorylah Pictures, Innoform Media, mm2, MP Entertainment, Passion Music & Entertainment and Malaysia’s Primeworks Studios.

The $11 million 3D action production Vikingdom was also launched at AFM. Production on the co-pro between Malaysia’s KRU Studios and Epic Pictures Group began on October 15. Dominic Purcell from TV’s Prison Break stars in the English-language tale of a Viking warrior forced to face his violent past. Epic is selling worldwide rights under its first of six-picture deal with KRU.

Between Two Skies, a high-budget co-production between LineClear Pictures, FINAS and Australia’s A2K Media, focuses on the truth about Malaya being bombed 70 minutes before the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War 2. The feature SeeFood, a high-quality 3D animated feature between Silver Ant and Al Jazeera Children’s Channel has secured a series of distribution deals worldwide to multiple nations in Asia, Latin America and Europe through their distribution company, Golden Network Asia. At AFM, Grindstone Entertainment Group in the U.S. secured all North American rights to the film. Other sales include Select Media Holdings for India, China Lion (Beijing) Cultural Media and Beijing Bona Film & Television Culture co. for China, K& Entertainment for South Korea, Wild Side for France, Splendid for Germany, Duka Film for Turkey, California Filmes for Latin America, Luxor for Russia and former CIS regions, Kino Swiat of Poland, Hollywood C.E. for Czech Republic and Slovakia, Blitz for Ex-Yugoslavia, Samfilm for Scandinavia, MT Entertainment of Indonesia, AV-Jet for Taiwan and IPA-Asia Pacific for Thailand.