EXCLUSIVE: London-based SC Movies Worldwide has picked up Brillante Mendoza’s newest movie challenge, Chameleon, for worldwide gross sales forward of the Cannes market.
At the moment in post-production, the Philippines-Japan crime drama focuses on a Filipino transgender dancer named Marie (performed by Mariko Ledesma) who joins the Japanese Yakuza underworld. Set in early 2000s Sapporo, Japan, Marie turns into entangled with the damaging Yakuza world after an immigration raid pushes her into the orbit of the lethal Yakuza. Determined, she takes a job on the Chameleon membership and rapidly turns into a favorite of the Yakuza boss, named Shimamura. Marie should discover a method to escape despite the fact that the promise of freedom could also be fleeting.
First footage from the movie will probably be out there throughout Cannes, with the movie receiving assist from Japan’s Company for Cultural Affairs. Manufacturing occurred over two years in Japan.
Chameleon stars veteran Japanese actor Eiji Okuda (The Pianist, Like a Rolling Stone) as Yakuza boss Shimamura, alongside Tsuyoshi Ihara (13 Assassins, Letters From Iwo Jima), Rina Takeda (Assault on Titan) and Shogen (Gensan Punch).
In addition to Ledesma, Filipino actors in Chameleon embrace Ruby Ruiz, Gigi Hernandez and Vince Rillon.
Mendoza received Greatest Director on the Cannes Movie Competition in 2009 for his characteristic movie Kinatay.
Troy Espiritu, who additionally served as a author on Mendoza’s 2016 Cannes entry Ma’ Rosa, penned the screenplay for Chameleon alongside Mendoza.
Chameleon is produced by the identical group of producers who beforehand collaborated on boxing biopic Gensan Punch, which received the Kim Jiseok Award on the 2021 Busan Worldwide Movie Competition. Producers embrace Takahiro Yamashita from Japan’s Yaman Movies, Krisma Maclang Fajardo of The Philippines’ Heart Stage Productions and UK-based Fumie Suzuki Lancaster of SC Movies Worldwide and Bobo.
The movie can be govt produced by Hironobu Arai and Yoshi, with music composed by Yoshihiro Hanno (Mountains Might Depart).
“We’re thrilled to reunite with director Brillante Mendoza and his excellent crew,” mentioned Lancaster, who serves as one of many movie’s producers. “This highly effective comeback movie is deeply rooted in Mendoza’s distinctive imaginative and prescient, shedding mild on the untold tales of Filipinos who got here to Japan within the early 2000s with hopes and desires of a greater life. Following our profitable collaboration on Gensan Punch, an HBO Authentic that received acclaim on the Busan Worldwide Movie Competition, we’re proud to proceed supporting Brillante’s daring storytelling on the worldwide stage.”
