The US and Korean companies will co-finance and co-produce the feature about a Korean follower of a US baseball team.

SK Global has signed a co-financing and co-producing deal with Korea’s CJ E&M for Super Fan, a feature based on the true story of a Korean baseball fan Sungwoo Lee (pictured) who became a celebrity in Kansas because of his passionate devotion to the US city’s team.

SK Global is a joint venture between Los Angeles-based Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Ivanhoe Pictures, whose The Wailing (made with Fox International Productions) recently premiered at Cannes and had a number one opening in South Korea.

The Super Fan screenplay is being written by Young Il Kim.

Ivanhoe/SK Global president John Penotti said: “We are very excited about this terrific, heart-warming story, a tale of two cultures linked by a shared passion, and social media. We couldn’t have a better partner for this project than CJ. In terms of both content and execution, the project uniquely lends itself to an organic US/Korea collaboration and we look forward to critical and box office success in both Korea and throughout the globe.”

Jeong Tae-sung, CEO of Korean finance and production giant CJ Entertainment, added: “We are looking forward to seeing such a natural US/Korea co production dealing with a rare true story that can only happen in our current day. We are excited to be taking on this endeavor with Ivanhoe.”

Topics