Fortissimo Films has sold Wong Kar-wai’s hotly-anticipated martial arts epic ‘The Grandmasters’ to Gaga Corporation for Japan.
Fortissimo is handling select territories retained by Wong’s Jet Tone Films, including Japan, Korea and India, while Fortissimo chairman Michael J. Werner is serving as associate producer and consultant. The deal was brokered by Fortissimo’s executive vice president, Sales and Acquisitions, Winnie Lau with Gaga chairman Tom Yoda and operating officer for acquisition Satomi Odake.
Wong said “In my conversations with Yoda-san and his team, I came to recognise the tremendous appreciation and passion that they had for my work and for this genre, we are pleased to have them introducing the film to the Japanese audience.†Yoda said: “We are very confident that we can push a new frontier for Chinese films in the Japanese market with this title.â€
Wong recently completed principal photography in China on the $25m film which stars Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen.