Astro strengthens regional partnerships
April 26, 2017
Content and consumer company in Southeast Asia, Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) continues to strengthen and grow its content creation partnerships with renowned content producers and filmmakers to produce and distribute Asian-themed originals.
Henry Tan, Chief Operating Officer of Astro said, “It is our intent to be a key player in the Asian content space. We will prioritise and increase our content spend on signature, vernacular and ASEAN IPs by 50 per cent. Our focus is on the creation of exportable and differentiated vernacular content IPs. We have seen positive response from our customers and are confident that this trend will continue.
We believe these IPs will anchor our long term value proposition, and ultimately, is what our customers want and are willing to pay for. Our strong presence in Malaysia, and growing presence in the region via Tribe and other distribution partners, underpin a wider customer base to amortise bigger and better productions.
We are pleased to announce that we have entered into strategic partnerships across several countries: in Indonesia for the creation of Asian content like DOSA, Heist, Polis Evo2, in Thailand and the Philippines by securing the production of the original series 3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories & Door respectively, and in China and India by licensing the remake of our successful film, The Journey. These provide the content pipeline for our key verticals such as the recently launched Boo, destination for Asian horror and A-List, home to award winning films.”
DOSA: Astro is pleased to co-produce a premium mini-series entitled, DOSA together with renowned Indonesian director, Ifa Isfansyah and acclaimed screenwriter, Salman Aristo. Ifa is the man behind a string of great titles such as Laskar Pelangi, Garuda Di Dadaku and Sang Penari which won him numerous awards at the 2011 Indonesian Film Festival including Best Director. While Salman is the most successful screen writer with works such as Laskar Pelangi, Ayat Ayat Cinta, Sang Pemimpi and his latest, Athirah won him Best Screenplay at the 2017 Indonesian Film Festival.
Polis Evo2 & The Journey: Riding on the astounding Malaysian box office hit of an Astro original movie, Polis Evo, Astro plans to co-produce and distribute its sequel, Polis Evo2 with Screenplay Films in Indonesia. Polis Evo2 is slated for cinema release early 2018 in Malaysia and Indonesia. In addition to the above regional collaborations, Astro has also concluded licensing agreement for the remake of award winning movie, The Journey with mm2 Entertainment in China and Wee Folk Entertainment in India.
3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories & Door: Astro has entered into an agreement with top Thailand horror content producer, Five Star Production and Manila-based Epicmedia Productions Inc.to produce two bone-chilling horror series and a movie, 3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories and Door respectively. The 3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories franchise comprises an anthology of 3 mini stories within one movie and a 13-episode mini-series, while Door is a 13-episode original series set in the Philippines exploring paranormal incidences. Shot on 4K resolution with cinematic quality, 3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories will see the outstanding work of Kiatkamon Iamphungporn, who first produced both 3AM movies in 2012 and 2014 while Door is the work of award winning producer, Bianca Balbuena who won her first award for Best Film at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.
The Voice: The highly successful reality singing show, The Voice will be produced as one version for Malaysia and Singapore via a tripartite co-production agreement between Malaysia’s Astro and Singapore’s mm2 Entertainment and Starhub. The show is scheduled to roll out from the second quarter of 2017, available via Astro Go, Astro TV and subscription-free TV service, NJOI in Malaysia.
Heist (Working Title): We are pleased to continue our collaboration with acclaimed Indonesian director Angga Sasongko. Astro first worked with Angga on a short film in 2015 for Tribe, a regional online video streaming service. Angga’s other credits include Surat Dari Praha for which he won Best Picture and Best Director at the 2016 Usmar Ismail Award and the very successful Filosofi Kopi which received national and international recognition.