Jeong Taesung, known as the international face of thePusan Promotion Plan (PPP) projects market is to become chief operating officerof the major Korean film conglomerate Showbox.

Thehigh profile move means that the forthcoming PPP (5-7 October), held inparallel to the Pusan International Film Festival, will be Jeong's last in therole of deputy director.

Showbox,which is part of the Orion group, is best established as an exhibition group.But it has expanded into distribution, production and most recentlyinternational sales. It recently enjoyed a $21m hit as distributor of comedy Sex Is Zero. Jeong,who also becomes as Showbox board member from next month, will see his rolecover all operations. He is said to be already reading scripts for possibleproduction.

"I'm delighted to be making the move, it is an important job and comes at animportant time for the company and for the industry," said Jeong. "It will besad to leave PPP, and I'd love to be able to keep a hand in."

Asidefrom his PPP job, Jeong also has his own production company Genesis Pictures,which currently has two fully-financed projects ready to shoot. The first ofthese, Lone Wolf (working title) will shoot next month.

Earlyprojects likely to make the cut for this year's PPP include new pictures byleading Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, another from Wong Kar Wai's Jettonestable. From Korea directors presenting new projects for financing are likelyto include Jeong Jae-Eun (Take Care Of My Cat), Hur Jin-Ho (One FineSpring Day, Christmas In August) and Lee Myung Se (Nowhere To Hide).The forum will also include five projects from the SARS-delayed Hong Hong AsiaFilm Finance Forum (HAF).

PPPwill this year expand to take in the BIFCOM location and facilities market andwill again host a plenary session of the Asia Film Network.

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