To coincide with the Berlin competition screening
of Ogata Akira's Boy's
Choir, Sento Takenori's Tokyo-based production
powerhouse Suncent Cinema Works has announced details
of its six-film deal with The Wild Bunch, Le Studio
Canal+'s specialised 'boutique' for independent, low-budget
pictures.
The
Wild Bunch will be handling world sales on Ishii Sogo's
big-budget action-adventure Gojoe. Currently
in post-production and due for a Japanese release later
in the year, this is Ishii's most ambitious project
yet. The cast includes Asano Tadanobu, Ryu Daisuke and
Nagase Masatoshe.
Also
part of the deal are the five films being made for Sento
Takenori's J-Cine-X, the operation dedicated to showcasing
young Japanese directing talent. Principal photography
is completed on Aoyama Shinji's Eureka,
a story about three survivors from a gun attack on a
bus. That will be followed by Sento Naomi's Hotaru
(Firefly) and as yet untitled films from
Suwa Nobuhiro, Riju Go and Kore-eda Hirozaku.
Since
its launch last summer, The Wild Bunch (headed by
Vincent Maraval of Le Studio Canal+ and Alain De La
Mata of UK indie distributor Blue Light) has been
aggressively tracking new projects from maverick directors
in Europe, the US, Asia and South America. Titles
already announced range from Barbara Kopple's In
The Boom Boom Room (starring Patricia Arquette)
to Lionel Delplanque's Promenons-Nous Dans Les
Bois (Deep In The Woods).
Geoffrey
Macnab
