China’s Linmon Media celebrated its tenth anniversary this week by unveiling 16 new shows for its 2024 production and release slate. The roster included seven Chinese period drama series, five contemporary shows and two more being made in Thailand.
“We are not just a producer, we are a studio,” Zhou Yuan, co-founder and EVP of Linmon, told PvNew on the sidelines of the company’s predominantly English-language presentation at the Asia Television Forum & Market in Singapore. “English, not Chinese, is the working language of our international division.”
The company, which floated on the Hong Kong Stock Market in 2022, previously saw third party companies distribute its rights in overseas markets. But, three years ago, it brought sales in-house as it reached the volume and scale of production to make it worthwhile and as the company expanded its production into ex-Chinese territories.
“Almost every project in today’s presentation is made in collaboration with one Chinese online platform or another. But we only license our Chinese rights and get them back after a period of time. And for the rights outside of mainland China, we are similarly the owner,” said Zhou.
Producing largely premium content, with per episode budgets of RMB4-6 million ($560,000 – $840,000), Linmon has had a strong year. “A Journey to Love,” a costume drama featuring two assassins from rival agencies, which launched last month on iQiyi, within China and overseas on both Viu and IQiyi, has been a ratings winner. (Limited territory rights are available, Los Angeles-based international executive Jenny Jin, said.)
Other titles on the 2024 slate include: “My Boss,” a contemporary comedy romance about a man and woman from the same law firm who accidentally lease the same apartment, and which launches on Youku in January; “In Between,” a romantic drama in a major metropolis; and season 2 of medical drama “The Heart,” in which complicated and stressful personal challenges are mixed together.
On the development slate are “Moonlit Reunion, a costume-fantasy-romance going into production in the first quarter of 2024; “A Dream Within a Dream,”a female-oriented costume comedy drama, about a woman who tried to avoid the fate that she already knows her character faces; and book-to-series adaptation “In the Moonlight,” about an impoverished princess forced into a political marriage, but who learns how to make the best of it.
The slate also includes a second season of “Under the Skin,” a crime suspense drama which aired on iQiyi, in which a portrait artist and a detective work together. Linmon has now announced an 8-episode Thai adaptation which will also shoot in 2024.
The company’s “Nothing But Thirty,” a realistic urban drama about women who are determined to be the protagonists in their own lives, also goes into second season next year. Zhou also revealed less-defined plans for its adaptation in Indonesia, Japan and Hong Kong.
