Italiandistributor Lucky Red has pre-bought multi-territory rights to A Thousand Plateaux (Chungae Eui Gowon),the Mongolian-set epic to be directed by controversial Korean director JangSun-woo.

Thefilm is sold internationally by independent Korean sales house, Cineclick Asiaand was presented last month at Rotterdam's CineMart project market. There ithad $1m of finance in place from Japanese financier and producer Happinet. Thelatest deals mean that some 75% of the $2.5m budget is now in place. Productionis set to begin in May.

Spearheadedby Andrea Occhipinti, Lucky Red bought rights for Italy, Switzerland, Belgiumand The Netherlands. It will share the rights with its partners Frenetic Films,Cineart/Cinelibre and A Film who make up three of the other four members ofbuying consortium Indie Circle. The Thousand Plateaux deal could not be done by Indie Circle itself asrights in France are not available to the other member, Haut Et Court. Frenchproducer-distributor Ocean Films is in final negotiations to take French andGerman rights to the film.

"Thisdeal is a consequence of the Indie Circle relationship and proves that thealliance works, even when all the rights are not available," saidOcchipinti. "The system applied to this pre-buy will be exactly the sameas we use for Indie Circle, with all revenues cross-collateralised and a singlecontract. In this case the contract has been signed by Lucky Red."

Cineclickalso completed three deals on The Bow, Kim Ki-duk's tale ofcross-generational love that is now in post-production. It was sold to Mikadofor Italy, Intercinema Arts for Russia and United King for Israel.