Film projects to be produced by Andrew Lau (“Infernal Affairs,” “Initial D”) and Han Sanping, the former head of China Film Corp., are among the new in-development titles that grace the FilMart slate of Hong Kong studio Media Asia.
The Peter Lam-controlled studio is also poised, at an event within FilMart on Monday, to detail its new alliance with China’s Alibaba Pictures Group.
Lau is producing “Behind the Scene,” a book-to-film adaptation to be directed by Lee Kwong-yiu (“Insanity”) in which four friends uncover a meticulously planned murder that is carefully disguised as a kidnapping. Suspicions fall on a bank president who is involved in counterfeiting.
Han is aiming to produce “Fading Tracks,” another crime title that is also adapted from a novel. Wang Jing (“The Best Is Yet to Come”) is set to direct the tale of murders and an erroneous conviction that come to light a decade later when new bodies are discovered.
Also on the Media Asia slate is “T-Bonds 327,” a fact-based crime drama to be directed by China’s Ren Pengyuan. It follows as an unremarkable man becomes a major player in the Chinese stock market, only to be blocked and marginalized by corrupt officials. When he manages to fight back and make an even bigger fortune, he enjoys only short-lived success.
Another Media Asia title is “In the Light of Dark,” to be directed by Zhang Mo (“Suddenly Seventeen,” “Snipers,” “Last Suspect”) from a screenplay by He Keke (“Lost in Russia,” “Railroad Tigers”) and Zhang Hongyi (“My Love, Mr. High Heels,” “You Are My Sunshine”). “Dark” is a period espionage and romance drama set in 1941 Shanghai, when the city was under Japanese occupation. Despite the war raging around it, the city’s French concession is decadent and full of spies. The story follows a woman who captures the hearts of two men as they wait for fate to change.
