Fine Cut to serve up Shin's 'Chaw'

Korean sales outfit picks up black comedy

By PATRICK FRATER, HAN SUNHEE

SEOUL -- Korean indie sales outfit Fine Cut has boarded a Seoul- and San Francisco-shot black comedy about a man-eating boar.

Pic, whose Korean title "Chaw" means to trap a wild animal, is helmed by Shin Jung-won, director of breakout hit "To Catch a Virgin Ghost." Attacks by the beast provoke political recriminations, a cover-up by the police and the arrival of a bounty hunter.

Aware of the inevitable comparisons with all-time Korean B.O. record breaker, "The Host," Fine Cut topper Suh Young-joo said: "With its touch of sarcastic humor, 'Chaw' will be a unique creature film."

"Chaw" is presented by Big House and Vantage Holdings and produced by Soo Jak Films. The U.S.' Polygon Entertainment provides special effects. Now in post-production, the pic will screen as a promo at the American Film Market in November and is skedded for Korean release in December.

Fine Cut, which has Pablo Trapero's "Lion's Den" and Noh Young-seok's "Daytime Drinking," in Toronto, has also picked up rights to two other pics.

It will give an AFM preem to K.T. Kwak's summer hit "Eye for an Eye," a dual between a top cop and a devious thief. And at next month's PPP Project market in Pusan it will present Japanese helmer Sabu's "Arrested Memories," an offbeat comedy-thriller about a cop with Alzheimer's disease.