HONG KONG -- In its first foray into financing Hollywood movies, Malaysia's KRU Studio will co-produce the Brittany Murphy-starrer "Deadline." Pic, which is lensing in Louisiana, is a psychological thriller about a screenwriter staying in an abandoned house. Helmed by first timer Sean McConville, pic also stars Thora Birch, Tammy Blanchard and Marc Blucas.
Production is by Ross Betterton of indie shingle Enso Entertainment. Pic is budgeted at significantly less than $10 million and sees KRU participate with equity coin and the provision of special effects.
"We have been wanting to venture out of Malaysia, to diversify and work more in the English language," KRU prexy and CEO Norman Abdul Halim said. "We were looking for a partner which shares the same vision, has its own financial resources and the access that will bring distribution. Enso has these. And working on a psycho thriller with this kind of stars was precisely the kind of project we had targeted."
KRU is a 15-year-old company which has expanded from production services into production and financing. As a production company, KRU was responsible for "Cicakman," the highest grossing Malaysian film of all time, and "Duyung," the biggest B.O. earner this year in the country.
"This is the first step in turning ourselves from production house into international studio," Halim said.
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com