Upgrade Productions, the LA-based production company launched by Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier focused on local-language productions, has announced a Mexican feature project and two upcoming series from India and Italy heading into Mipcom and AFM.
Comedy drama My Teacher, Mr. Kim Remake is a Mexican remake of the 2003 South Korean film My Teacher, Mr. Kim to be directed by Celso Garcia, the fast-rising filmmaker whose multiple award-winning 2015 debut feature The Thin Yellow Line was produced by Guillermo del Toro. Mineko Mori (Huevos: Little Rooster’s Egg-cellent Adventure, #LadyRancho) is producing with Upgrade Productions in partnership with CJ ENM (Parasite) which produced the original feature.
Celso and Mori co-wrote the screenplay and the story centres on a schoolteacher who gets caught taking bribes and is reassigned to a remote rural village school. At first he plots how to return to his old job in the city but changes course as he realises his dedication to his new students outweighs his greed. Celso will next direct La Gran Seducción starring Roma’s Yalitza Aparicio for Netflix.
The two series include Sunny Side Up, an original Indian comedy produced by Mumbai-based Writeous Studios. Upgrade Productions will serve as executive producers on the Hindi-language show written by Sidhanta Mathur, Randhir Virdi and Shubhangana Joshi. The story takes place in Goa where Kaizaad struggles to keep his family’s beachside eatery in business and forms up an unlikely bond with Nikhil, a dropout lawyer, and Rashi, an ambitious local looking to realise her full potential. Together the trio band together to revive the business.
Untitled 1982 World Cup (working title) is an original Italian series produced by Angelica Canevari, Sergio Giorcelli and Amedeo Bacigalupo from Italian production and distribution company Cloud 9 Film. Upgrade Productions will take an executive producer role on the Italian-language series written by Franco Bernini (The Grey Zone), Carmen Danza (Warner Bros. Italy’s Moglie e Marito), and Manuela Pinetti (RaiPlay’s Monitor).
The show takes place at a critical juncture for Italian sports and politics and explores the key personalities and shifting zeitgeist in the years leading up to the football tournament that brought the country together as the Azzurri aimed to win their third World Cup.
All three projects are being developed with the goal of starting production in 2023. Co-president Brodlie and EVP, head of series Caroline Kusser are attending Mipcom, which kicks off today (October 17) in Cannes.
“We are thrilled to be working with such a talented and experienced group of producers including Mineko Mori and CJ ENM, Writeous Studios and Cloud 9 Film as we collaborate on our first projects in Mexico, India, and Italy,” said Upgrade co-presidents Brodlie and Kier, who launched the company in October 2021 in partnership with German powerhouse Constantin Film. “Representing a range of genres, we’re excited to help develop these stories further, championing the ideas and creative voices behind them.”
Upgrade’s development slate includes the eight-part Japanese-language series A True Novel written by Riko Sakaguchi and produced by Japan’s Shochiku; original fantasy horror series La Jaula (The Cage) co-produced with Spain’s DeAPlaneta and Minoria Absoluta, written and to be directed by José Luis Montesinos; Sausages (working title), an original series from Australian comedian Ryan Shelton, who writes, produces and stars; and TV series Twenty Faces based on the popular book series by Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo, co-produced with Japanese production and distribution company The Klockworx and produced with Akiko Funatsu.
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