Filmart 2013: Fortissimo Takes on 'Rigor Mortis'

HONG KONG – Fortissimo Films will begin shopping Rigor Mortis at Filmart next week, after announcing on Wednesday its acquisition of international rights for the film, a contemporary take on the horror-comedy genre brought to success by films like Mr Vampire in the mid-1980s.

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The brainchild of Hong Kong pop talent Juno Mak Chun-lung, who wrote and directed the film and is producing it -- alongside The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu -- through his own Kudos Films company, Rigor Mortis features Mr Vampire star Chin Siu-ho as an actor who has outlived his fame as a star in vampire-hunting films, and finds his attempt to commit suicide interrupted by strange happenings around him.

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The film, which also stars Wai Ying-hung and Paw Hee-ching, is currently in post-production, and Fortissimo will handle the film’s sales to territories beyond Hong Kong and mainland China. A press statement said the film will be premiered at an international film festival later in the year before its domestic release here.

The son of local telecommunications tycoon Clement Mak Siu-tong, Juno Mak began his career in Hong Kong as a pop singer before branching into acting, most notably in Wong Ching-po’s thriller Revenge: A Love Story in 2010, which he also wrote.