Berlin: Taiwan’s ‘Shambhala,’ ‘Sleep With Your Eyes Open’ Producers Join Forces for Film, TV Venture
Two Taiwan-based production companies with features in this week’s Berlin Film Festival have joined forces to launch new venture, Long Hu Bao × An Attitude.
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Taiwan’s Yi Tiao Long Hu Bao International Entertainment, is one of eight co-producers on main competition film “Shambhala,” from Nepal’s Min Bahadur Bham.
Yi Tiao Long Hu Bao is also one of three co-producers on Brazilian title “Sleep With Your Eyes Open” (aka “Dormir de olhos abertos”) directed by Nele Wohlatz, which debuts in Berlin’s Encounters section.
While the two companies will remain legally separate, the collaboration also brings together Lee Lieh, Roger Huang, and Justine O., three of Taiwan’s most experienced producers. They aim to continue their expansion into international co-productions and span both film and TV.
“We see it as three generations of producers (one 65-years-old, one 55 and one 40) becoming a strong alliance that joins together the resources of Asia – Edward Yang’s Taiwanese new wave, mainland China, Taiwan and Japan,” O told Variety.
Lee (Edward Yang’s “That Day, on the Beach”) has multiple other credits as film and line production roles and earned the Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year prize at the Golden Horse Awards in 2010.
Huang has credits on “Double Vision” (2002), “The Spy Gone North” (2018) and other international productions involving Korea, Japan and the U.S.
O worked as producer for leading Chinese independent Jia Zhangke from 2014 to 2020, was involved in the establishment and operation of the Pingyao International Film Festival in China, and has since become a busy producer in her own right. Her credits include 2016 Berlinale Forum film “Life After Life”; 2021 Cannes title “Gaey Wa’r”; 2022 Venice Days film “The Last Queen”; and last year’s Cannes title “A Song Sung Blue.”
Long Hu Bao × An Attitude is currently working on an internationally co-produced series, “Close-hauled: Nicholas Iquan,” centered around historical figure Zheng Zhilong (Nicholas Iquan) which chronicles the activities of East Asian pirates in the early 17th century, and “Formosa Wonderland Show,” a TV show adapting real-life stories.
Other upcoming projects include the collaborative feature film The Ancient Tree,” directed by Singing Chen, and TV series “Boys and Spirits,” by director Lin Yayu.
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