On the last day of the TIFFCOM market, Japanese studio Shochiku announced that it has closed a raft of Asian sales on action thriller Midnight Eagle, which opened the Tokyo International Film Festival last week.

Among deals concluded at the market, Dong-A Export Co bought the film for South Korea, Celestial Pictures acquired rights for Hong Kong and Macau and Scorpio East Pictures stepped up for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.

Universal Pictures will handle North American distribution of the film which was produced by a production consortium headed by Universal Pictures Japan. Shochiku saidthe companyisin talks for several other territories which its plans to close at next week's AFM.

Directed by Izuru Narushima, the $10m action thriller follows a photographer who stumbles across a crashed stealth bomber in Japan's Northern Alps carrying enough nuclear weapons to exterminate the entire country. Takao Osawa (Crying Out Love, In The Center Of The World), Hiroshi Tamaki and Yuko Takeuchi head the cast.

Shochiku also confirmed that is has secured 313 screens for the film's Japanese release on November 23.

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