Midnight Pulp has acquired the North American rights to Reiki Tsuno’s debut feature “Mad Cats,” ahead of the film’s Canadian premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival on Aug. 4.
Written and directed by Tsuno, “Mad Cats” tells the story of a young man named Taka (Sho Mineo), who embarks on a quest to search for his missing brother Mune (So Yamanaka). With the help of two strange yet amusing new friends, Taka must fight against a pack of gun-slinging monster cats disguised as women. In addition to Mineo and Yamanaka, “Mad Cats” stars Yuya Matsuura, Ayane and Michael Aaron Stone.
“No more depressing movies from Japan. I want to make movies that make you feel happy,” Tsuno said of “Mad Cats” in a statement.
Matthew Kiernan, manager of Midnight Pulp, added, “We’ve been looking for something truly special, completely wild and wholly original for our first-ever exclusive premiere and once we saw ‘Mad Cats’ at Fantasia, we knew we found it. ‘Mad Cats’ will be catnip to audiences looking for something wild and entertaining and we can’t wait for them to experience it.”
“Mad Cats” originally premiered at Slamdance Film Festival back in January. Tsuno previously directed the 2018 short film “Crying Bitch,” which screened at Fantasia and SXSW.
The North American rights acquisition deal for “Mad Cats” was helmed by Adam Torel of Third Window Films and Selin Kilic of Cineverse. Midnight Pulp has set the exclusive VOD release of Tsuno’s action-comedy for late 2023.
Watch the teaser for the film below.