Aussie projects win at CoProShow
Three Australian films are among the five winners of the Producers Guild of America Co-Production Showcase.
The chosen projects are The Adventure of Kokochin, The Fourth Know and Under the Black Flag.
The CoProShow was developed by the PGA’s International Committee to provide international film producers with a opportunity to engage in an open dialogue with their U.S. counterparts. The showcase will take place during Produced by Conference at Twentieth Century Fox Studios in LA next month.
“The winning producers will now have an opportunity to network with American producers in order to co-develop their projects and find the funding necessary,” said Stu Levy, chair of the PGA’s International Committee.
The winning projects are:
- The Adventure of Kokochin, an Australia/China co-production (prod. Tim Baker, from NSW and Jing Jin, from Paris/Beijing), teeling the story of Princess Kokochin, daughter of Chinese emperor Kublai Khan, who travels to Persia with Marco Polo, is sold into a slave house, and then escapes back to China along the Silk Road. According to Baker, much of the film will be shot on location in China, with post-production done in Australia, and dialogue will be in English.
“The win means genuine access to LA-based producers. The PGA has been working on our behalf to secure meetings with producers we have nominated,” said Baker. We are looking at an alliance with an exec prod who is in for the long haul, because we will be pitching several other international co-productions in addition to The Adventure of Kokochin.”
“The film has 80 percent finance in place, with an equity stake from Shanghai Film Group, and normal government funding/rebates from both China and Australia. As well as the Americans, we are also looking at French finance possibilities, as one of the project’s production companies has a presence there. We are hoping to begin shooting on location in China the third week of April 2011. We hope to announce the director during the PGA event.”
- The Fourth Knot (prod. Matt Hearn, from Victoria), “a supernatural thriller about the most forbidden love”.
- Under the Black Flag (prod. Nicholas Cole, from NSW), the true story of two 18th century women pirates “whose cleavage was just as deadly as their swords”.
The other two winners are Somebody Else, from Canada, and 66 Degrees North, from Iceland.
