EastWest sells 'Shirley' to South Korea, Taiwan

EastWest Film Distribution has revealed a slew of sales at Busan’s Asian Film Market, led by Gustav Deutsch’s Shirley, Visions of Reality, which has been sold to JinJin Pictures for South Korea and Sky Digi for Taiwan.

The film, which weaves together stories from the life of a fictional actress with Edward Hopper paintings, screened at several festivals including the Berlinale and Karlovy Vary.

The Vienna and London-based sales company has also sold The Closed Circuit, Miss Kicki, Cycle and Yarik to China (JY Entertainment); Rammbock to Japan (Ayapro); and Miss Kicki to Hong Kong (Edko Films).

Expanding its operations in the Asia-Pacific, EastWest is participating in the Asian Film Market for the first time. Their titles include Never Die Young, a Luxembourg-set “poetic feature” directed by Pol Cruchten with a soundtrack featuring Bob Dylan who watched the film before giving permission to use his music.

Christopher Hampton, who won an Oscar for his adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons and was nominated for another for Atonement, has adapted the Never Die Young screenplay for English-language audiences.

The film features poetic voiceover dialogue between two seemingly tragic lovers to tell the story of a young man’s destructive relationship with heroin.

The English-language version is currently in post-production.

“Given Bob Dylan and Christopher Hampton’s involvement in the project, we are quite confident we will be able to attract high profile actors for the English-language voiceovers and are currently in negotiations,” said Sasha Wieser, CEO of EastWest Film Distribution.