The Father

[GeneChing]

Sep 9, 2020 7:59am PT
AGC International Takes Foreign Rights to Donnie Yen Action Thriller ‘The Father’
By Manori Ravindran


AP

Stuart Ford’s AGC International has picked up action thriller “The Father,” starring “Mulan” actor and martial artist Donnie Yen.

The sales and distribution arm of AGC Studios has swooped for international rights to the title, which will be launched to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival, running in largely virtual form from Sept. 10-20. CAA Media Finance will handle U.S. distribution rights.

Set in South Boston, Yen — who is best known for the “Ip Man” franchise, “Star Wars: Rogue One” and, most recently, “Mulan” — stars as middle-class Hong Kong immigrant John Chung, who is making the best of his family’s new life in America while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s docklands. When his teenage sons stumble upon four kilos of heroin and are hunted down by a local crime ring and corrupt cops, Chung must stop at nothing to protect them.

The cast also includes Alec Baldwin (“Mission Impossible: Fallout”) and Frank Grillo (“The Purge”).

Producers on “The Father” include Arthur Sarkissian (“The Foreigner,” “Rush Hour”), Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road (“John Wick,” “Sicario”), John Schramm and Yen. A script from P.G. Cuschieri will be directed by Tommy Wirkola (“Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”). Principal photography gets underway early in 2021.

CAA represented Yen, Baldwin, Grillo and Wirkola and negotiated the deal with AGC’s VP of legal and business affairs Anant Tamirisa and Thunder Road’s executive VP of business affairs Jonathan Fuhrman. Yen is managed by David Unger at Artist International Group.

Yen recently boarded documentary “Wuhan! Wuhan!” which chronicles a day-and-a-half in the life of the Chinese city where the earliest proven cases of COVID-19 were found. The actor, who recently reiterated his political loyalty to mainland China, will appear in the upcoming theatrical adaptation of popular video game “Sleeping Dogs” as well as “Golden Empire,” a new China-backed crime thriller.

Will they boycott Donnie like they are boycotting Mulan?

[GeneChing]

Sep 28, 2020 8:00am PT
Donnie Yen’s ‘The Father’ Scores International Deals at Toronto Market

By Naman Ramachandran


Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Stuart Ford’s AGC International has closed several global territories on “The Father,” starring Donnie Yen (the “Ip Man” franchise, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”), directed by Tommy Wirkola (“Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters”)

Deals closed at the virtual Toronto market include with Leonine in Germany and Switzerland; Metropolitan in France; DeAPlaneta in Spain; Nordisk in Scandinavia; Rialto Distribution & Vertigo Releasing in Australia & New Zealand; Signature Entertainment in the U.K. and Ireland; Paradise/MGN in CIS and Baltics; Just Media Group in Benelux; First Run in South Korea; MovieCloud in Taiwan; Italia Films in Greece, India, the Middle East and Turkey; Sahamongkolfilm in Thailand; HBO Asia for pan-Asian pay TV; GSC in Malaysia; Golden Village in Singapore; Lusomundo in Portugal; United King in Israel; and ATM Films in the West Indies.

“The Father” is a fast-paced ode to the action movies of the 1980s. The cast also includes Alec Baldwin “(Mission Impossible: Fallout”) and Frank Grillo (“The Purge” franchise). Arthur Sarkissian (“The Foreigner”), Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road (the “John Wick” franchise), John Schramm and Yen will produce from a script by P.G. Cuschieri (“Cut Throat City”).

Principal photography gets underway in early 2021.

Negotiations are ongoing for the remaining unsold territories. CAA Media Finance is handling U.S. distribution rights.

AGC Studios’ slate includes Ron Howard’s untitled Lang Lang project, Roland Emmerich’s “Moonfall,” Doug Liman’s “Lockdown,” Rowan Athale’s “Little America,” and Pierre Morel’s “The Blacksmith.”

The studio’s television division, AGC Television, is in production on the second season of sci-fi television series “War of the Worlds,” starring Gabriel Byrne and Daisy Edgar-Jones, which premiered on Epix earlier this year.

AGC International is the international sales and distribution arm of independent content studio AGC Studios.

Good for Donnie.