'Space' sales travel
Pony Canyon sells beyond Japanese borders
"Space" receives its world market preem at Cannes.
Part thriller, part actioner with comic touches, "Space Travellers" is Motohiro's follow-up to his cop kidnap drama "Bayside Shakedown," which grossed nearly $100 million in Japan, making it the fourth highest-grossing Japanese film of all time there.
"Space Travellers" turns on a bungled bank heist where the robbers declare themselves to be an international terrorist group called the "Space Travellers."
That only makes their situation worse as what appears to be half the Japanese police force surrounds the bank.
Per Pony Canyon's deputy general manager Shinji Sakoda, Pony Canyon is in talks to sell South Korea on "Space" and both "Space" and "Bayside" to France. He aims to close both deals at the festival.
"Space" bowed in Japan April 15 on north of 250 screens and has grossed $15 million to date, Sakoda said.
Pony Canyon is also screening Takashi Yamazaki's "Juvenile," in which a group of adolscent friends discover a winsom robot.
The pics are produced by Robot Communications, owned by Fuji TV, and whose prexy is Shuji Abe.
"We're trying to bring on a new generation of young directors," said Toru Horibe, exec producer of Robot's movie production division.
"Bayside," "Space" and "Juvenile" are on the leading edge of far more mainstream Japanese moviemaking. Motohiro laughed when his producers accuse him of being an "artist": he admires Jord Ford "for his ability to make any kind of film and work with any kind of genre," he said.
A visual effects director before becoming a fully-fledged helmer Yamazaki cites James Cameron as an inspiration. Bowing July 15 on 250 screens, "Juvenile" is a "new mesh of high-tech and Japanese beauty," he said.
The key challenge for such films is to break out of their national and Asian region market and find beach-heads in Europe or beyond.
"I'm not looking for a massive opening, but a niche theatrical bow in a few cities (in a non-Asian country) would be a real breakthrough," said Sakoda. Cannes this year may determine if Pony Canyon gets closer to that goal.
