Tara Ansley: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Purin Pictures, a non-profit film fund supporting independent cinema in Southeast Asia, has unveiled $170,000 of grants in its autumn funding round. Its reading committee chose three fiction and two documentary projects for production support and one fiction project for post-production support. The fiction films are “Daughters of the Sea,” a story of three intertwined lives, to be directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar (“Leonor Will Never Die”) and produced by Monster Jimenez and Rajiv Idnani, through Philippines company Arkeo Films; writer-director and editor Daniel Hui’s “Other People’s Dreams,” about two runaways who become invisible thieves in Singapore, produced by Tan Si En at Momo Film; and “Sitora,” by Diffan Sina Norman, a drama about the oldest member of a village community which is about to be consumed by the urban sprawl. The project is to be produced by Tara Ansley, Armen Aghaeian, Zurina Ramli through Malaysian firm Rangka Pictures. The two documentaries receiving production support of $15,000 each are “Black River,” directed by Tran Phuong Thao, and “When a Poet Goes to War,” by Myanmar’s Aung Naing Soe. With production by Swann Dubus through Varan Vietnam, “Black River” follows merchants who use old boats to set up temporary markets in the territories of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Through the Lens Entertainment, the East-West film studio that made a splash at Cannes last year, has struck a film development and production deal with iconic horror magazine Fangoria. For Fangoria, the agreement marks a return to filmmaking after a prolonged period of corporate turbulence.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Haunting of Hill House” writer Jeff Howard has been hired to develop Junji Ito’s manga “Bloodsucking Darkness” into a live-action feature film. Fangoria Studios, a genre film and TV company, is backing the film. It’s set to be the first of three projects that Fangoria plans to adapt from Ito’s hit vampire series “Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection.” “Fangoria Studios is going to adapt my manga! I’m so excited to see how it will turn out,” said Ito, who is serving as a producer. “I hope I get to see the trailer in my dreams tonight.” Ito began his career as a manga horror writer while working as a dental technician. Manga became his full-time job in the late 1980s and in 1998 as he began writing and illustrating “Uzumaki” in Big Comic Spirits. Since then, he has continued to publish works such as “Gyo” and “Smashed.”

EXCLUSIVE: Fangoria Studios has hired Amir Moini as its first Chief Marketing Officer.

EXCLUSIVE: Anna Chazelle has signed on to write, direct and exec produce an untitled horror film based on the Greek legend of Medusa for Fangoria Studios.