NEON, CJ ENM Take Domestic On Kore-eda Hirokazu’s ‘Broker’ Ahead Of Cannes Premiere

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In the wake of the Cannes Palme d’Or and Oscar winning success of Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, NEON is re-teaming with CJ ENM to pick up the North American distribution rights to Broker, from writer-director Kore-eda Hirokazu ahead of the pic’s global premiere at Cannes.Broker is debuting in competition at this year’s festival, and is produced by Zip Cinema.Broker centers around Sang-hyun (Song Kang Ho) and Dong-soo (Gang Dong Won) as “brokers of goodwill,” who connect unwanted babies with new parents on the black market.

When a new baby is dropped off, Sang-hyun and Dong-soo embark on a road trip to meet prospective parents, but are surprised when the birth mother (Lee Ji Eun) unexpectedly shows up to join them on their journey.NEON’s Jeff Deutchman, EVP of Acquisitions & Production, negotiated the North America deal with Namyoung Kim on behalf of CJ ENM.Kore-eda previously won the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival for Shoplifters, which wound up being nominated for a Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2019, and scored the Jury Prize in 2013 for Like Father, Like Son.NEON has had an impressive showing on the Croisette, with two Palme d’Or wins in three years with Parasite, which was produced by CJ ENM and made history winning four Academy Awards, becoming the first non-English-language film to claim Best Picture and Julia Ducournau’s Titane.

Both features which were acquired by the studio at script stage.This month at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, NEON will unveil David Cronenberg’s Crimes of The Future starring Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, and Viggo Mortensen and Brett Morgen’s David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream.