International sales label for Salon

Yen-starrer 'Skin' company's first title

By PATRICK FRATER

Salon Films, one of the oldest names in the Asian movie business, is planning to set itself up as an international sales label.

Company’s first title will be Donnie Yen starrer “Painted Skin,” which lenses at the end of the year in China.

Hong Kong-based Salon is best known as an equipment supplier, with outlets in China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, but it has regularly provided production finance for some of the movies it has provided with tech facilities.

“Salon has been at the forefront of bringing Hollywood production values and technology to Asia for the past 50 years,” said Salon topper Fred Wang. “We are doing this because we be-lieve we can help improve the film industry in Hong Kong.”

Wang said the sales division likely will seek a series of rights-buying alliances with partner companies in China, Europe and the U.S.

Films to be handled by the operation chiefly will be sourced from Hong Kong and mainland China.

“We hope ‘Painted Skin’ is the first of many films that we handle,” said Salon Multimedia Center manager Freddie Ho. “It is a long-term aim of ours to represent more. What we pick up, of course, will depend on the conditions.”

“Painted Skin” is a Chinese supernatural actioner being put together as a $10 million China-Singapore co-production. It is jointly helmed by Wilson Yip Wai-shun (who previously directed Yen in “Dragon Tiger Gate”) and Andy Chin Wing-keung (“Dragon Chronicles”).