South African studio group Distant Horizon has picked up remake rights to two Asian pictures, adding to its stable of international properties in development.

From Hong Kong's China Star Entertainment it has picked up rights to My Father Is A Hero, a political-action picture directed in 1995 by Corey Yuen and starring Jet Li.

Distant Horizon chief executive, Anant Singh said that he had leveraged his ongoing relationship with China Star, to beat a number of other bidders.

Distant Horizon is currently developing a remake based on comedy La Brassiere that will be produced through Los Angeles-based Primal Pictures. Distant Horizon also co-financed production and distribution of the China Star's Black Mask and Black Mask 2. Distant Horizon intends to appoint a scriptwriter and package the project before setting it up at a studio.

It has also bought rights to Thai comedy Saving Private Tootsie about a troupe of drag queens forced to co-habit with a troop of soldiers. The project was brought to Distant Horizon by Brian Cox and the group's in house Asian specialist Richard Jeffrey. It was bought from Sangar Chatchairungruang and Nucci Chai of Film Bangkok, producers of hits including Tears Of The Black Tiger and Bangkok Dangerous.

Distant Horizon, currently making Nelson Mandela biopic Long Walk To Freedom, is involved in other remake projects including Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse which Wes Craven is to make at Dimension Films, Kite which will be made by xXx-director Rob Cohen and Hideo Nakata's Don't Look Up.