Neon Lands North American Rights To Director Zhang Yimou‘s "One Second"
- Details
- Category: Entertainment News
- Published on Friday, 23 July 2021 15:24
- Written by Hildy Johnson
NEON has landed the North American rights to Chinese Director Zhang Yimou's One Second. The film, written by Zhang along with Zou Jingzhi and based on the novel by Yan Geling, stars Zhang Yi, Liu Haocun, and Fan Wei.
The personal period drama has been selected as the Closing Night film at Toronto International Film Festival, where it will make its North American premiere.
Aaron Eckhart To Star In "Rumble Through the Dark" For Foresight Unlimited
One Second finds a rural Chinese village coming together to restore a destroyed film reel. Among them, an escaped prisoner, a young vagabond scheming to steal the reel away, and a projectionist known as Mr. Movie. The film was shot in and around the small Chinese town of Dunhuang, known for its evocative, sand dune-swathed landscape.
Jeff Deutchman negotiated the deal for NEON with Eva Diederix of Wild Bunch. Wild Bunch is handling international sales. One Second is a Huanxi Media Group Production and produced by William Kong, Ping Dong, Liwei Pang and Shaokun Xian. The film was released in China on November 27th.
Academy Award® Winning Director Yimou is known for acclaimed works such as Raise the Red Lantern and Hero. He recently wrapped production on the crime drama Under the Light. Recent titles include thriller Impasse, which also stars Zhang Yi.
One Second joins Celine Sciamma's Petite Maman as the second NEON title announced for this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Screen Media Acquires North American Rights to “Naked Singularity”
NEON recently debuted three titles to critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival, and took their second Palme d'Or winner in a row, just off the heels of Parasite, with Julia Ducournau's Titane. The company also premiered Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria starring Tilda Swinton, which tied for the Jury Prize, and the anthology feature The Year of the Everlasting Storm.
Out of the festival, NEON acquired the breakout instant classic The Worst Person in The World from Norwegian writer-director Joachim Trier, which took the Best Actress Award for Renate Reinsve, as well as Jonas Carpignano's festival sensation A Chiara, which won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Directors' Fortnight section. The company's upcoming slate also include Jamila Wignot's Ailey, Jonas Poher Rasmussen's Flee, executive produced by Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Pablo Larrain's Spencer.
About NEON:
In just four years, NEON has garnered 12 Academy Award® nominations, five wins, including Best Picture, and has grossed over $150M at the box office. The company continues to push boundaries and take creative risks on bold cinema such as Bong Joon Ho's Parasite, which made history winning four Academy Awards®, becoming the first non-English-language film to claim Best Picture.
NRA Documentary, "The Price of Freedom" Gets July Release
The film, which also unanimously won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, has amassed over $53M at the domestic box office and broke multiple records including highest per screen average of the year and highest per screen average for a foreign language film of all time. NEON has amassed a library of over 50 films with noteworthy releases including: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov's award-winning and record-breaking Honeyland, which is the first non-fiction feature to land Academy Award® nominations for Best Documentary and Best International Feature Film in the same year; Todd Douglas Miller's Apollo 11, 2019's highest grossing documentary with a worldwide gross of $16M; Tim Wardle's Three Identical Strangers, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling which surpassed $13M at the box office; and Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya, which garnered multiple Academy Award® nominations, one win for Allison Janney and amassed over $30M in domestic box office.
Common and Steel Springs Pictures Join Forces for "Rising Above"
The company has several projects in various stages of development and production, including Pablo Larraín's Spencer starring Kristen Stewart; Ben Wheatley's Horror Film In The Earth which recently made its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival; and The Painter and the Thief narrative remake. NEON continues to be an impressive force, with recent acquisitions such as: Céline Sciamma's Petite Maman; Jonas Poher Rasmussen's Flee, executive produced by Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau; Jamila Wignot's Ailey; R.J. Cutler's Billie Eilish: The World's A Little Blurry; Venice's Grand Jury Prize Winner Michel Franco's New Order; Gunda directed by Victor Kossakovsky and executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix; and Robert Machoian's powerful thriller The Killing of Two Lovers.
After their successful collaboration on I, Tonya in January 2018, 30WEST (Dan Friedkin's and Micah Green's strategic venture) partnered with NEON's Tom Quinn (Founder & CEO) and Tim League (Co-Founder) to become majority investors in the company.
