Clover Films Harvests Multi-Territory Rights to Giddens Ko’s ‘Till We Meet Again’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Patrick Frater
·2 min read

Singapore-based distributor and producer Clover Films has partnered with Taiwan’s Machi Xcelsior Studios for the worldwide theatrical rights (except Taiwan and South Korea) to Giddens Ko’s “Till We Meet Again.”

The film is a fantasy romance starring Kai Ko (“You Are The Apple Of My Eye”), Gingle Wang (“Detention”) and Vivian Sung (“Our Times”) that recently garnered eleven nominations at the Golden Horse Film Awards.

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The producers will retain the rights in Taiwan. Hive Filmworks will be handling the theatrical rights in Korea. The movie, produced for a budget of $3.5 million, has been dated for release on 24 November in Taiwan.

Clover has long been a leading distributor of commercial Asian movies in both Singapore and Malaysia. It has also produced several titles in the same two territories. Taking the vastly wider package of rights outside the producer territory (and Korea) is a new step.

“We are not aiming to do this aggressively for many titles, but we want to do so for titles we believe in, such as this one,” Clover CEO Lim Teck told Variety. Clover, long an independent, sold a 51% controlling stake to stock market-listed mini conglomerate GHY Culture & Media earlier this year.

Ko is the novelist-turned-filmmaker who shot to pan-Asian success with his directorial debut “You Are The Apple of My Eye.” While he has only dabbled with directing since, Ko remains a prolific writer whose books and scripts are directed by others including Adam Tsuei (“The Tenants Downstairs”) and Kevin Ko and Peter Tsi (“A Choo”).

“Till We Meet Again” was the opening film of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in July and performed the same function at last month’s Taipei Film Festival.

Founded in 2018, by Jeff Huang, Machi Xcelsior Studios describes its mission as “the integration of film and television entertainment in Mandarin-speaking markets.” It was producer of “The Sadness” and “Plurality,” both of which were completed this year. “We aim to propel Taiwan entertainment to be on the global stage with a mainstream appeal,” says Huang.

The deal was negotiated by Machi’s veteran distribution guru Lu Wei-chun and Clover’s Lim Teck.

“We are so excited to be handling the theatrical rights to this wildly-anticipated movie! We share Lu and Machi’s passion that this movie is made for cinemas, and we will try our very best to release the movie theatrically in as many markets as possible. We hope this is the first of many collaborations between Machi and Clover!,” said Lim Teck.

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