Studiocanal has acquired international rights to «kiDnap Game,» an 11-part survival thriller created and directed by Japan’s Yusuke Kato, set across seven Asian cities and starring Kentaro Sakaguchi and Lee Joon-gi. The series, produced by Fuji Television, Hong Kong’s MakerVille and South Korea’s Simstory, will be presented to buyers at Mipcom in Cannes this week.
Eleven hours of people getting abducted. Seven cities. Two beloved leads. Somewhere at Mipcom, someone calls this a survival thriller and means it as praise. Stockholm syndrome with subtitles. Here’s the question nobody asks: how much of that pan-Asian budget went to the crews in those seven cities, versus the two faces selling the poster? Or does “pan-Asian” just mean cheap labor, expensive leads?