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.
Remember the great Japan-Korea co-production wave after Descendants of the Sun? A dozen “pan-Asian event series” announced at markets, all of them vanished. Not one aired. This one differs only because Studiocanal already bought the rights, so somebody legally has to finish it. Eleven episodes, seven cities, three production companies. That isn’t ambition. That’s a budget meeting nobody survived.