UK- and Germany-based sales company K5 International has taken on world sales rights to Jessica Yu's Ping Pong Playa.

The film premiered at Toronto.

Oscar winner Yu wrote and directed the comedy, about an Asian-American suburbanite who unexpectedly has to take over his family's ping-pong dynasty. Jimmy Tsai, Elizabeth Sung and Rodger Fan star.

Anne Clements and Joan Huang of Cherry Sky Films produced.

Yu told ScreenDaily.com that K5 seemed to be the perfect home for the film. '[Anne Clements] felt they had a handle on the potential for a film like that, it's a fun movie and they undsertand how audiences are there for a film like this.'

She continued that he had high hopes for the film connecting to international audiences. 'It's sprinkled with insider humour but right off people seem to get it. From the moment it showed in Toronto, we knew that it could find a broader audience.'

IFC Films will release Ping Pong Playa theatrically in North America in September.

Bill Stephens, a partner in K5 International said: 'This is a sideways step for K5 International in terms of subject matter but when we saw the film in Toronto it was impossible to resist. The characters are well developed and the comedy is sharp and intelligent. Ping Pong Playa should become a cult classic, it's a real gem.'

The deal was negotiated between ICM's Bic Tran and Peter Trinh as well as Clements and Huang (on behalf of Cherry Sky Films) and Daniel Baur, Bill Stephens and Oliver Simon at K5 International.

K5's Cannes sales slate also includes Tom McCarthy's The Visitor and Joshua Goldin's Wonderful World.

Meanwhile, Yu says she's got 'somthing going on every burner,' working on commercials, episodic TV and a new documentary and new narrative project. The documentary will be about a Los Angeles school for the deaf who works with adults lacking languge training.

The fictional project will re-team her with Ping Pong Playa co-writer and star Jimmy Tsai . 'We're writing another comedy now and it should be ready by the end of the summer,' she says, without revealing plot details. 'It's the same kind of character-driven comedy but set in a different place.




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