Anthem, the specialist arm of sales and finance company IM Global, has added six Asian titles to its Cannes sales lineup. Four are sourced from China’s Enlight Pictures.
New Enlight movies include animated adventure “The Guardian” (aka “Da Hu Fa”,) directed by Fan Bu Si. The fantasy quest, aimed at both adults and children, is told using a mix of Chinese ink painting and original hand-drawn animation. Enlight’s documentary “Return to the Wolves,” directed by Yi Feng, recounts the story of a painter, Li Weiyi, who lived in the wild for nine months in order to save an orphaned wolf cub in the grasslands of Sichuan.
They join two previously announced Enlight titles: romantic drama “All About Secrets,” directed by Lien Yi-chi and adapted from Rao Xueman’s bestseller of the same title, about a family and friends whose secrets threaten to overwhelm them; and comedy drama “City of Rock,” about a man trying to protect the environment from property developers. It is directed by Dong Chengpeng (“Pancake Man”).
From Alibaba Pictures, IM Global has picked up romantic fantasy epic “Once Upon a Time.” The film is co-directed by Anthony Molinara and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding (“House of Flying Daggers”) and stars Liu Yifei (“A Chinese Fairy Tale”) and Yang Yang (“I Belonged to You”). Based on the bestselling novel “To The Sky Kingdom” (“Tang Qi”), the film is a story of epic battles, passion, life-threatening evil, and magic.
Also added to the slate is Korean action thriller “Real” from Cove Pictures. Directed by Love Lee and starring Kim Soo-hyun (“The Thieves”), Sung Dong-il (“The Accidental Detective”,) Lee Sung-min (“A Violent Prosecutor”,) and Choi Jin-ri, the film follows a man who aims to control the criminal world by launching the largest casino in the country. CJ Entertainment will release the film in South Korea. IM Global will handle worldwide rights, excluding China, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Mongolia.
The pickups are in addition to two other recent Chinese blockbusters from Huayi Brothers: “Youth,” by Feng Xiaogang, and “Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings,” to be directed by Tsui Hark.