FILMING for Terbalik/Upside Down will only begin early next year, but this new local horror-thriller has already received much interest from United States-based financier and production company Ivanhoe Pictures.
It recently purchased the remake rights to the film, marking a milestone for the local film industry, especially so for its film producers — 42nd Pictures Sdn Bhd.
“We’re thrilled that the screenplay for Terbalik/Upside Down has managed to attract Ivanhoe Pictures’s interest.
“We’ve always wanted our projects to go global.
“Clinching this deal is an incentive for us to write more screenplays for the international film market,” said its co-founder and producer Bea Tanaka at a press conference to announce the new film and the deal, at Finas in Hulu Klang on Friday.
The deal with the Hollywood-based company sees local adaptations of Terbalik/Upside Down being made in 34 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, South Korea, Spain, India and Vietnam.
Kuala Lumpur-born Bea, who started 42nd Pictures with her Japanese husband film director Yasu Tanaka, said: “We pitched the idea of Terbalik/Upside Down at the Hong Kong Asia Financing Forum 2017 last March, and it was the only Malaysian project out of 24 projects shortlisted.
“Ivanhoe Pictures’s representatives at the forum expressed interest in acquiring the remake rights,” said Bea, adding that they were lucky to have met them.
Ivanhoe Pictures is the company behind the upcoming comedy film, Crazy Rich Asians, which stars Malaysian actors Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh and Henry Golding.
Yasu, who has 20 years’ experience as a screenwriter in Hollywood and has lived in Kuala Lumpur for a decade said, Terbalik/Upside Down would star award-winning actor Bront Palarae as Brian Pereria, a successful but temperamental actor.
The story revolves around Brian who gets into a car accident, and is trapped “upside down” in a ravine in the middle of a jungle. Injured and in pain, Brian seeks help from three teenage boys who live nearby but they are sadistic bullies who torment him.
Yasu, who won Best Screenplay at last year’s Malaysian Film Festival for the 2015 thriller Nota, said Terbalik/Upside Down would have a potential value of RM12 million to RM16 million, courtesy of the agreement with Ivanhoe Pictures.
Bea said horrors and thrillers were popular with international audiences, and thus, she and Yasu opted for this genre in Terbalik/Upside Down.
“Having lived in Hollywood for a year in 2009, we’ve met producers and directors and learnt that horrors and thrillers sell.”
Ivanhoe Pictures’s chief executive officer John Penotti said they were delighted to be partnering 42nd Pictures and described Terbalik/Upside Down as an engaging thriller with characters whom audiences around the world could relate to.
National Film Development Corporation (Finas) director-general Datuk Fauzi Ayob said this partnership would elevate the Malaysian film industry to the world stage.
Present at the event were Finas deputy director-general Datuk Azmir Saifuddin Muthalib and Creative Content Association of Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Mahyidin Mustakim.