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NEWS Sunday 19 May 2019
DAY 6

CANNES Q&A:

HOLLY LEVOW

AND PAUL KAMPF

PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR, IMPRISONED

© PATHÉ This is Equitas Entertainment’s first community involvement in the making of
experience at Marché du Film. What
The Merciless by Byun Sung-hyun the film. With the release of the film, we are
do you hope to achieve? partnering with the nonprofit organisation,
CJ, PATHÉ We want to introduce our company and PeaceLove, to bring awareness to their work Holly Levow © DR
AND VENDÔME our unique mission and impact-driven and will also be donating a portion of ticket
approach to filmmaking at the Marché and
sales to bring more mental-health art
TEAM FOR build relationships with others in line with therapy sessions to incarcerated men and
our vision. We are proving that it’s possible
women across the globe.
ENGLISH to have high-quality films that are both
VERSION OF socially responsible and financially The film stars American actor
successful and we hope others will mimic
Laurence Fishburne, and a strong
THE MERCILESS this approach as well. international Latin cast — how did
you convince Fishburne to play a
CJ ENTERTAINMENT, Pathé Films and The company is focused on having a morally suspect prison warden and
Vendôme Group have joined forces to positive social impact — how was how did you go about casting the
produce an English-language remake of that achieved with the film film?
South Korean box office hit The Merciless, Imprisoned and how do you hope Laurence strongly responded to the
which was directed by Byun Sung-hyun to achieve it in future films? material, first and foremost. He loved the
and starred Sol Kyung-gu and Im Si-wan. We achieved this in many ways. Here are a duality of Warden Calvin and felt that
CJ Entertainment produced and few key points. We committed to paying there were very few characters in films Paul Kampf © DR
distributed the original 2017 crime our female lead equal to her male allowed to have such a complex duality.
thriller that redefined a genre. counterpart, regardless of the financial We worked with casting director, Carla delivered a dynamic and authentic
The film follows Jae-Ho, a prisoner who impact on the budget. It was important for Hool to find the most culturally and performance.
holds power over his fellow inmates. On us to promote female and minority heads creatively accurate lead cast members.
the outside he is second-in-command of a of departments whenever possible to She was able to place the script in the What are release plans for North
criminal gang, and is determined to take diversify the whole filmmaking process. We hands of amazing actors who responded America?
over the top spot when he is released. worked closely with the formerly very strongly. As we cast locally, we looked We will be releasing theatrically in Puerto
The Merciless was shown out of incarcerated to provide them opportunities to find an authenticity to match the rest Rico, where we shot the entire film. From
competition in the Midnight Screenings in front of the camera. We also left a of our cast. In doing so, we were able there, we will move across the US in select
at the 70th Cannes Film and emerged as positive footprint in every town and to offer a supporting role to a formerly cities, and grow our release pattern as the
one of the hottest titles of, selling to location where the film was shot, by incarcerated individual who took film and our mission gains attention. ✦
distributors in over 117 countries. working with the local businesses to ensure on this challenge as a first time actor and Liza Foreman
The English-language remake is being
developed by CJ Entertainment, Pathé
Films and Vendôme. The film is
co-financed by Pathé and CJ and
produced by Vendôme’s CEO Philippe
Rousselet and co-CEO Fabrice Gianfermi;
Francis Chung, CJ’s head of US
productions; and Ardavan Safaee.
JerryõKo, head of international at CJ, is
executive producer.
CJ will distribute the film in South Korea
and is handling sales rights for all Asian
territories and Turkey. Pathé Films will
release the movie in France and
Switzerland and look after all remaining
international sales on the film.
The Merciless remake is the second deal
between Vendôme and Pathé to be
announced in Cannes this year. Earlier
this week the two companies announced
a three-year revolving co-development
and co-production deal to produce one or EFP’s Producers on the Move 2019 in Cannes
two films a year, starting with Coda, an
English-language remake of the 2014 Hendrik Verthé (left), A Team Productions (Belgium), Julianna Ugrin, Éclipse Film (Hungary), Nina Bisgaard, Meta Film
French box office hit La Famille Belier, (Denmark), Grégoire Debailly, Geko Films (France), Jon Nohrstedt, SF Studios (Sweden), Carles Torras, Zabriskie Films (Spain),
written and directed by Sian Heder Mila Turajlić, Dribbling Pictures (Serbia), Cormac Fox, Vico Films (Ireland), Inese Boka-Grūbe, Mistrus Media (Latvia), Lilja Ósk
(Orange is the New Black) which will start Snorradóttir, Pegasus Pictures (Iceland), João Viana, Papaveronoir (Portugal), Eva Blondiau, Color of May (Germany), Małgorzata
Staroń, Staron Film (Poland), Joram Willink, BIND (The Netherlands), Nadia Trevisan, Nefertiti Film (Italy), Sereina Gabathuler,
shooting soon on location in Gloucester, Dschoint Ventschr (Switzerland), Emily Morgan, Quiddity Films (United Kingdom), Anita Juka, 4Film (Croatia), Dyveke Bjørkly © KURT KRIEGER/EFP
Massachusetts. ✦ Graver, Oslo Pictures (Norway), Rok Biček, Cvinger Film (Slovenia).
Julian Newby

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