Fortissimo comes on board Genghis Khan epic An End To Killing

Fortissimo has acquired international rights outside China and Korea to An End To Killing.

Wang Ping (Six Women In War, Jin Hun) directs the Chinese/Mongolian epic.

Set during the late reign of Genghis Khan, the film is about when a Daoist priest convinces the warlord that he needed to give up violence and killing.

The cast features Zhao Youliang [pictured] as the priest and Tu Men as Genghis Khan with Park Yejin, Geng Le, Yu Shaoqun, Li Xiaoran, Elvis Tsui and Hideo Nakaizumi.

Sun Ming served as cinematographer and Japan’s Kenji Kawai composed the score.

The $12m multi-national production is now in post with Korea’s MOFAC handling CGI and effects. It is being set for an autumn release in China (and an international festival launch in autumn also).

Production companies are ShanDong Film Studio, China Film Group Corporation, ShanDong WoHan Culture and Media Co, Radio Film and TV Administration of ShanDong Province, and SCS Entertainment. International producers on board are Satoru Iseki and Jooick Lee.

The deal was negotiated during the recent Beijing Film Festival between Fortissimo’s Chairman Michael J. Werner and Esther Yeung, Fortissimo’s Director of Asian Acquisitions together with Satoru Iseki and Wang Ping on behalf of the producers.  

On announcing the deal, Werner said, “An End To Killing, while inherently violent and epic in scope reveals that there were other issues that were confronting the mighty Genghis Khan as he took on the known world vanquishing all rivals, challengers, and assassins until this one aging priest convinced him that there might be another way. With his talented multinational cast and crew, Director Wang Ping intends to capture and illustrate the conflicts, mood, and visceral energy of the times.”

Producer Satoru Iseki added: “We are very happy that An End To Killing is going to be handled by Fortissimo. They know the commercial market and festival world very well for this kind of cinema and have handled several of the prior Chinese productions that I and Jooick Lee have been involved in. The whole production group is excited to be working with Fortissimo.”

Fortissimo will present a promo reel in Cannes market.