IM Pictures, a movie distributor and investment firm, has delayed the release of its 2006 movie business summary which was expected at the beginning of this year. IM Pictures has released an annual profit-and-loss report on Korea's film industry since 2001. It has cited a lack of data for the delay, but experts believe that IM Pictures doesn't want to scare off new investment by revealing last year's huge losses.
Industry insiders estimate the loss for 2006 at W100 billion(US$1=W945). That's nearly twice as much as the W63.3 billion in combined profits from 2003 to 2005. Last year, 90 Korean movies out of 110 failed to recoup production and marketing costs.
The problems facing the domestic film industry are serious. The average cost to produce a feature film is now W5.1 billion, according to a report by the Korean Film Council. And while the number of movie-goers remained about the same, the number of film releases jumped 30 percent over last year's fig...More
Korean-Japanese director Choi Yang-il, known in Japan as SAI Yoichi, is in town with his first film made entirely in Korea with a Korean cast. "Soo", is a hard-boiled revenge-thriller about a man, Tae-su, who witnesses the killing of his identical twin brother Tae-jin. Recovering from the trauma, he sets out to cold-bloodedly avenge his brother's murder in a grisly, exacting fashion.
Samji Animation (CEO: Kim, Soo-Hoon), a 3D animation studio, held a signing ceremony on the co-planning of an animation with major US production company Man of Action at the 2006 Cultural Contents Investment Roadshow, held in Los Angeles, USA on Nov. 7. The deal also includes the participation of renowned writer Matt Danner.
The contract stipulates that Samji Animation will collaborate with Man of Action and Matt Danner to co-develop two action comic adventure animation series for TV, aimed for global distribution, which will begin production in 2007.
The movie "The War Of Flower", based on the same-titled cartoon by cartoonist Heo Yeong-man, has joined the ranks of top-10 domestic movies.
Since its opening September 28, the film had drawn 5.68 million viewers as of October 22, according to its distributor, CJ Entertainment, surpassing the number of viewers drawn by "Marrying the Mafia" (5.66 million). If the film's popularity remains as high, it will likely even outperform "JSA - Joint Security Area", which is currently ranked ninth at 5.83 million viewers.
Director Lee Joon-ik, who made Korean cinematic history with his record-breaking hit film "The King and the Clown", has recently wrapped up shooting for his next film.
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