EXCLUSIVE: London-based SC Movies Worldwide has picked up Brillante Mendoza’s newest movie undertaking, Chameleon, for worldwide gross sales forward of the Cannes market.

At present in post-production, the Philippines-Japan crime drama focuses on a Filipino transgender dancer named Marie (performed by Mariko Ledesma) who joins the Japanese Yakuza underworld. Set in early 2000s Sapporo, Japan, Marie turns into entangled with the damaging Yakuza world after an immigration raid pushes her into the orbit of the lethal Yakuza. Determined, she takes a job on the Chameleon membership and rapidly turns into a favorite of the Yakuza boss, named Shimamura. Marie should discover a method to escape despite the fact that the promise of freedom could also be fleeting.

First footage from the movie can be accessible throughout Cannes, with the movie receiving assist from Japan’s Company for Cultural Affairs. Manufacturing befell over two years in Japan.

Chameleon stars veteran Japanese actor Eiji Okuda (The Pianist, Like a Rolling Stone) as Yakuza boss Shimamura, alongside Tsuyoshi Ihara (13 Assassins, Letters From Iwo Jima), Rina Takeda (Assault on Titan) and Shogen (Gensan Punch).

Apart from Ledesma, Filipino actors in Chameleon embody Ruby Ruiz, Gigi Hernandez and Vince Rillon.

Mendoza received Finest Director on the Cannes Movie Competition in 2009 for his function movie Kinatay.

Troy Espiritu, who additionally served as a author on Mendoza’s 2016 Cannes entry Ma’ Rosa, penned the screenplay for Chameleon alongside Mendoza.

Chameleon is produced by the identical group of producers who beforehand collaborated on boxing biopic Gensan Punch, which received the Kim Jiseok Award on the 2021 Busan Worldwide Movie Competition. Producers embody Takahiro Yamashita from Japan’s Yaman Movies, Krisma Maclang Fajardo of The Philippines’ Heart Stage Productions and UK-based Fumie Suzuki Lancaster of SC Movies Worldwide and Bobo.

The movie can also be government produced by Hironobu Arai and Yoshi, with music composed by Yoshihiro Hanno (Mountains Could Depart).

“We’re thrilled to reunite with director Brillante Mendoza and his excellent group,” stated Lancaster, who serves as one of many movie’s producers. “This highly effective comeback movie is deeply rooted in Mendoza’s distinctive imaginative and prescient, shedding mild on the untold tales of Filipinos who got here to Japan within the early 2000s with hopes and desires of a greater life. Following our profitable collaboration on Gensan Punch, an HBO Unique that received acclaim on the Busan Worldwide Movie Competition, we’re proud to proceed supporting Brillante’s daring storytelling on the worldwide stage.”