Berlin Film Fest - H 2013
Las Vegas-based Birch Tree Entertainment is at the EFM shopping pre-sales rights for Atlantis Conspiracy, a Malaysian sci-fi project to be directed by James Lee.
The director successfully moved from award-winning indie dramas to mainstream fare with action comedy The Collector.
Lee, who began the 2000s as part of a wave of filmmakers securing festival acclaim with low-budget, digitally-shot titles, is joined on the project by Singaporean action star Jourdan Lee and an international cast, said Birch Tree CEO Art Birzneck.
The project is produced by Asia Tropical Films, which backed The Collector, and Milkomedia Productions. It is slated to become the biggest sci-fi movie ever attempted by a Malaysian film company, Birzneck told THR. He argued that the country has the potential to deliver genre cinema, with his company also selling an end-of-days martial arts thriller called Apocalips X.
Meanwhile, Birch Tree’s Canadian-registered production arm is also in talks to bring in a “big name” as top billing for its Stockholm-set action-thriller Black Watch, which already has Peter Stormare on board.
Produced by Birch Tree and Sweden’s Ovnell Films, the movie will begin shooting in June. It adds to the company’s international action film slate, with Birzneck having met with Yuen Woo-ping recently to discuss Vigilantes, which the action choreographer has signed on to direct.
