Vietnam’s Skyline Media Inks Pre-Cannes Deals on Southeast Asian Slate (EXCLUSIVE)
Skyline Media, a leading Vietnamese studio, is getting ready for Cannes with a string of sales on its local and Southeast Asian film sales slate.
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Since appearing at FilMart in Hong Kong in March, Skyline has licensed Cambodian horror title “The Night Curse of Reatrei” to Taiwan’s Cai Chang International and to Exponenta Film for the CIS region. The film about a woman doctor who takes up a job in an orphanage, only to find that the place is haunted, is directed by Leak Lyda. Starring Jenna Norodom, Shin Yubin and Paing Takhon, the Khmer-language film is Cambodia’s highest-grossing horror title of all time.
Vietnamese horror film, “The Soul Reaper,” scored $2.34 million at its domestic box office, having been released at the end of 2023. Since its market debut in Busan last year, the film has since added $320,000 of theatrical revenue in Myanmar and Taiwan and been licensed to Netflix for 11 East Asian territories.
The film is directed by Tran Huu Tan and produced by Hoang Quan. It is adapted from Thao Trang’s novel “The Soul Reaper” (aka “Ke An Hon”), a prequel to “Lunar New Year in Hell Village” (aka “Tet O Lang Dia Nguc”). “Soul Reaper” portrays the happy occasion of a wedding turn darker after the arrival of a creepy stranger.
“The Sisters” (previously known as “Cursed Cinderella”), which involves the daughter of a village chief returning to life and bringing with her the ritual of blood sacrifice, hails from the same director-producer duo Tran Huu Tan and Hoang Quan as “The Soul Reaper.” It has been acquired by Moviecloud (aka GaragePlay) for Taiwan and by Westec Media for release in Cambodia and Laos.
Westec also bought “Spirit Whisker,” for the same two territories, in the weeks since the film’s FilMart market debut.
“We are excited to expand our footprint to represent not only Vietnamese films but also high-potential productions from across Southeast Asia, with the aim of diversifying our line-up. For Vietnamese titles, our main target is to reach local audiences in each market with a mainstream approach rather than just Vietnamese communities,” said Hang Trinh, CEO of Skyline Media. “Our current strategic focus for sales advancement centers on Latin America, the CIS, and Asia.”
The company expects to unveil further Vietnamese and Southeast Asian titles at the Cannes Market.
In its Vietnam home market, Skyline is a significant distributor. It has handled the release of some 800 foreign films and 150 local ones, since being established in 2014. Among its most recent foreign features were A24’s “Civil War” and “Love Lies Bleeding,” with the hit Alex Garland film releasing in premium large format venues IMAX and 4DX.
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