Megaton Entertainment, an indie distribution and film sales firm, has picked up a pair of titles from Hong Kong production entities AMM Entertainment and Phoenix Waters. It is launching them at the American Film Market (AFM) this week.
Megaton is pre-selling “Chungking Mansions,” which it bills as the biggest zombie film in Hong Kong cinema history, and also as “ ’The Raid’ with zombies.” Directed by banker turned producer and director Bizhan Tong (“The Escort”), the film tracks a diverse group of people who, following a zombie attack, try to break into Chungking Mansions.
The building was made famous in Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express and is possibly the richest cultural melting pot in the predominantly Chinese city. Wong is reputed to have called it a “mass-populated and hyperactive place.”
Currently in pre-production, the film is set to employ a suitably diverse cast including: Japan’s Rina Takeda (“Attack on Titan”); Korea’s Go Joonhee (“Possessed” “Intimate Enemies”); Desmond Tan (“Code of Law” “The Big Day”); Hong Kong’s Wiyona Yeung (“Keep Rolling,” “Guilty By Design”), Singapore’s Rebecca Lim (“100 Yards”); Charlotte Cheung (“Deception of the Novelist”); and Kevin Leslie (“Rise of the Drays”).
“There will be further strong Hong Kong cast attachments in the coming weeks,” Megaton manager, Gilky Wan told Variety.
Megaton is also pitching “Lockdown,” a pandemic-era thriller in which an actor must keep passing devious tests set by a casting director in order to keep the people around him alive. As events escalate and more people are trapped the actor must confront his past, overcome his present, and find out why events are happening.
The eclectic cast includes Xander Berkeley (“The Walking Dead”), John Savage (“The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone”), Hong Kong actress Anita Chui (“OCTB”), Reza Diako (Apple TV Plus’s “Tehran”), Jumayn Hunter (“Small Axe: Mangrove”), Alix Wilton Regan (“Cyberpunk 2077,” “The Wife”), Kevin Leslie (“The Rise of the Krays”), Pamela Nomvete (“Gangs of London”). Other roles go to film production executive Mike Leeder and Japanese adult film star Meguri.
Tong has been handed the keys to a unit of Asia Television, previously Hong Kong’s number two free-to-air broadcaster, and has created AMM Global as a content studio within it. Its output to date has been co-produced with another Tong company Phoenix Waters, which recently got into bed with a crypto firm.
Headed by industry veteran Wan, Megaton has also been involved in supplying alternative forms of cinema content, such as live simultaneous broadcast of K-pop concerts.