Marking one of the highest profile deals at the Hong Kong Asia Screenings, leading UK art-house distributor Metro Tartan has struck a three picture deal with Fortissimo Film Sales.
The trio are headed by biopic Party Monster, which marks Metro Tartan's biggest acquisition to date. Continuing its growing portfolio of Asian pictures, Metro Tartan also grabbed rights to two Thai films; psychological thriller The Eye and stylish gangster thriller One Take Only.
The deal was negotiated by Metro Tartan's managing director Laura De Casto Fortissimo executive Winnie Lau and co-founder Michael Werner.
De Casto said: "Party Monster was an irresistible package; great production team, great script and a great cast." The film, which starts shooting next week under the direction of documentarians Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, is a biography of outrageous night club-owner Michael Alig based on Disco Blood Bath by celebutante James St James. Produced by Killer Films with backing from Ed Pressman and John Schmidt's ContentFilm it stars Macauley Culkin and Chloe Sevigny. Marilyn Manson has just been added to the cast as Alig's superstar Christina.
The Eye is produced by Hong Kong-based, pan-Asian production house Applause Pictures and directed by two of the top cross-over talents Danny and Oxide Pang. Oxide Pang's One Take Only, premiered at the Bangkok festival in November and screened at January's Rotterdam festival. "Danny and Oxide are two of the most fresh and dynamic young directors from Asia. We want to develop an on-going relationship with them. And we have made a commitment to supporting Asian the best of Asian cinema both theatrically and through our Asia Extreme home entertainment label," said De Casto.
Other deals concluded by Fortissimo on its Cannes hopeful Springtime In A Small Town by Tian Zhuangzhuang which was sold to CineArt-CineLibre and A-Film for Benelux and to Golden Screen for Malaysia.
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