Tucker tucks into Dee and Assassins
By Patrick Frater
Wed, 13 October 2010, 12:06 PM (HKT)
Tucker Film is in advanced negotiations to buy two of the autumn season's biggest Chinese films for distribution in Italy.
The one year old company is poised to acquire the Tsui Hark-directed (徐克) Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (狄仁杰之通天帝國) from sales agent and producer Huayi Brothers (華誼兄弟). From Fortissimo Films it is set to take Reign of Assassins (劍雨), which was directed by Su Chao-pin (蘇照彬) and co-directed by John Woo (吳宇森).
Both films had their world premieres at the Venice festival last month, only a few miles from Tucker's home in Udine.
They have both since opened in China, with Dee streaking off to big box office and Reign delivering a more slow-burn performance.
The acquisitions are a step up in scale for the company which has to date only released one title, Japan's foreign-language Oscar-winner Departures (おくりびと). That enjoyed ticket sales of some 125,000 and box office of €670,000 ($925,000).
Tucker is headed by Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, co-chiefs of the festival of Far East Film in Udine.
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