FilmSharks Boards Chinese Animation ‘A Hero’s Journey To The West’ Ahead Of Cannes

EXCLUSIVE: Buenos Aires-based sales FilmSharks has taken international sales rights to the Chinese animated film A Hero’s Journey to the West.

Made with a budget of $26M, the film is directed by Phil Nibbelink (The Fox and the Hound) and written by James Felder (Ultimate Spider-Man). A Hero’s Journey to the West will have its world premiere on May 18 at the film market during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Endeavor Content was reported to have picked up international sales rights to the film in 2019, but Deadline understands that financing and production of the film fell through during the pandemic. The project was revived after the threat of Covid-19 subsided and rebranded as A Hero’s Journey to the West.

A Hero’s Journey to the West is set to be the first instalment of a trilogy telling the story of Sun Wu Kong (also known as the “Monkey King”), one of the most well-known characters from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.

The first instalment will focus on Sun Wu Kong’s discovery of his extraordinary fate from birth as well as his fight with the gods. The second instalment will follow Wu Kong’s rise as he meets other heroes. They work together to retrieve a collection of ancient scrolls. In the third film, the heroes will resolve their differences as they complete their journey to the west.

The rights deal was negotiated between FilmSharks CEO and founder Guido Rud as well as producers Jon Chiew and Pham Thi Tam of Dongky King Pictures. Chiew produced Chinese comedies Hello Mr. Billionaire (2018) and Too Cool to Kill (2022).

“We are pleased to close a deal with FilmSharks as we feel that they are the right partner to bring a theatrical big-budget animation to the international arena,” Chiew said. “We have high expectations for our film to be welcomed by global cinema distributors.”

Rud added: “The animation market has reached a very competitive moment due to the increase in animation productions today. International theatrical distributors are more picky than ever, only choosing top-quality productions. A Hero’s Journey to the West has all the key artistic and production highlights to become an international box office hit.”