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Shebnem Askin, Head of Sony Pictures International Productions (SPIP) and Executive Vice President, Creative Production, shared insights into the studio’s international commissioning and acquisition process during a keynote at TIFFCOM. She also revealed two items currently on her shopping list – action comedies and live-action remakes of Japanese anime properties. While the studio’s local-language output currently includes a wide range of comedies, romcoms and a few horror titles, she said she’s planning to expand the range of genres. “I got this job in the middle of Covid, and had a sense that audiences wanted to smile a little, so I may have heavily leaned down on comedies,” said Askin, adding that the studio has also made a few horrors and melodramas, with the latter category recently including Argentinian director Marcos Carnevale’s The Heart Knows. “We’re now in development on Marcos’ next movie, also a melodrama. But I’m also looking right now for action comedies, which are really tough to find.” She also explained that the studio’s local-language output includes both original stories, such as Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet, and titles based on existing IP, including the Japanese franchise Kingdom, which is based on a best-selling manga. One of her tasks in TIFFCOM is to find further Japanese IPs to adapt. “Since I came here, I’m taking so many great meetings with a lot of companies that are producing incredible stories with anime,” Askin shared. “So we are starting to look at different anime movies which we can hopefully adapt as live-action movies around the world. So this is one of our missions by attending TIFFCOM.” SPIP’s local-language slate includes a slew of remakes including Padre No Hay Más Que Uno, a Spanish remake of Argentinian film Ten Days Without Mom; I Hate Summer, a Spanish remake of an Italian film; and three remakes of French title Price Of Parenting, which has been adapted in Italy, Mexico, and Spain. Sony U.S. title 50 First Dates, which starred Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, has been remade in Japan, Mexico and Thailand, with the latter remake currently in production. Askin also shared details of Sony’s international greenlighting process: “We start with creative approval, but at the end of the day this is the movie business, so every film has to have a P&L [profit & loss statement]. So if we love a project creatively, let’s say it’s a German movie, the way we form a P&L is we get theatrical estimates from our local managing director in Germany. “For television values, we are very lucky, because Sony has an international sales team in almost every major country in the world. So their estimates come together, and our passion and fight for the movie are combined and we move on to the greenlighting process. If we have at least have five signatures, we can greenlight the movie.”
