South Korean sales outfit Finecut has announced a slew of AFM pre-sales deals on the espionage action thriller Iris: The Movie, starring pan-Asian heart-throb Lee Byung-hun.

Lee previously starred in G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra and Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird.

Iris: The Movie has sold for a six-figure minimum guarantee to Mega Film for mainlandChina. The company previously distributed 200 Pounds Beauty on wide release, and the romcom became one of the most successful Korean films to have a theatrical release in China.

Iris: The Movie also pre-sold to MFA+ for German-speaking Europe. The company previously released Korean hits The Host and The Chaser, also previously bought from Finecut. Visicom Surya also picked up the film for Singaporeand Malaysia.

Iris is a $20m project simultaneously produced as a TV series and a motion picture by Taewon Entertainment. The production is headed by Chung Tae-won, whose credits include the multi-national co-production Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon, starring Andy Lau and Maggie Q.

A rangy, large-scale project, Iris was shot in a variety of locations including Hungary, Japan and Korea.

The TV series is currently airing in South Koreawith ratings of more than 30% and is also due to broadcast in Japan and other Asian countries. The movie version is scheduled to be delivered for theatrical release in early 2010.

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