Kimo Stamboel: Last News

Lionsgate has landed domestic U.S. rights to Badarawuhi Di Desa Penari (Dancing Village: The Curse Begins), the prequel to Indonesia‘s highest-grossing film, KKN Curse of the Dancing Village.

Continuing its run of slate launches globally, Netflix unveiled new Indonesian originals premiering on its platform this year.

Korean production and sales powerhouse Barunson E&A is investing in and taking on international sales for upcoming Indonesian horror Sorop, produced by MD Pictures, and will launch the film in Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) next week. 

EXCLUSIVE: Indonesia’s MD Pictures has announced that its horror prequel Badarawuhi Di Desa Penari is the first production in Southeast Asia to be filmed with Imax-certified digital cameras.

Indonesia’s cinema admissions grew by 14.5% year-on-year to reach 114.5 million in 2023, compared to 100 million the previous year, according to local box office analyst Bicara Box Office. That figure puts the market around 24% below the pre-pandemic figure of 152 million admissions in 2019. 

Naman Ramachandran Lila Aviles‘ “Totem” has won the global feature award at the annual Jakarta Film Week. The film previously won awards at the Berlin, Hong Kong, Durban and Beijing film festivals. The direction award for best Indonesian feature film went to Jeremias Nyangoen’s directorial debut “Women of Rote Island.” The film bowed at Busan earlier in October.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Indonesian genre specialist Timo Tjahjanto has begun production on “The Shadow Strays,” a new action film project. Tjahjanto is one half of a writing-directing pair with Kimo Stamboel that are colloquially known as the Mo Brothers and previously delivered “Headshot.” However, it was as a solo director that Tjahjanto (“May the Devil Take You Too,” “The Night Comes for Us”) was signed to a multi-film deal with Netflix in 2022. He delivered his first picture under that arrangement later that year. “The Big 4” debuted in Netflix’s non-English language top ten.

Indonesian action comedy The Big 4, directed by Timo Tjahjanto, has entered Netflix’s Global Non-English Film chart at number two for the week December 12-18 with 16.4 million hours viewed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Prolific Japanese film director Miike Takashi and Indonesian genre specialist Kimo Stamboel will be among the star names in the ‘On Screen’ section of the Busan International Film Festival given over to TV series. Miike has made “Connect,” a Korean-language crime fantasy thriller about a man who is kidnapped and has one of his eyes removed by a gang of organ harvesters and transplanted into the body of a notorious serial killer. The unwilling donor now has terrible visions as he witnesses terrifying attacks on the residents of Seoul. The show was written by Nakamura Masaru and Heo Dam (“Monstrum”). It features Korean talent including Jung Haein (“Snowdrop,” “Start-Up,” “Tune in for Love”) in the lead role and Ko Kyungpyo (“Decision to Leave,” “Seoul Vibe,”) as the serial killer, and Kim Hyejun (“Inspector Koo,” “Kingdom,” “Sinkhole”) as the mysterious Irang.