By Allison Watkinson
TLL Reporter
Momo Film Co. has signed a co-production deal with Bros Studio to develop Kenaz webtoons into scripted TV series.
Kenaz is a Korean webtoon company, platform and IP holder that produces and distributes content across multiple demographic categories.
“We are in the era of NFTs, AI, VR, and K-content, and I believe that webtoons is the medium that connects all of those trends and technologies,” said Kenaz CEO, Woody Lee. “Webtoons not only has the potential to be a source of entertainment and content, but it also can become the source of technology and content such as NFTs and AI.”
The licensing partnership between Momo and Bros will see the two companies adapting the licensed Kenaz mobile comics into international TV series.
Bros Studio is a Korean-American talent management and entertainment production company. The company has a division exclusively focused on creating content based on webcomic IP.
“We are now seeing the global markets open up to viewing webtoon IPs, popular in their native digital format for many years in Korea, in motion-picture format,” says Bros Studios co-founder, Joseph Jang. “We look forward to working alongside Momo Film Co. to bring more of those stories to the global viewing audience.”
Part of Beach House Pictures, Momo Film Co, is a Singapore-based film and TV production company that creates multi-genre content for the international market. This licensing deal marks the company’s first foray into the webtoon market.
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“We are thrilled to work on these incredible narratives that have large fan communities and look forward to getting more Asian IPs made and producing stories that need to be seen on screen,” said Momo Film MD, Si En. “The webtoon universe has a wealth of stories that we can tap into and working on Kenaz’s stories with Bros is a perfect partnership.”
The licensed Kenaz webtoon TV projects currently in development are Mirror Game and All About Money.
Written and illustrated by Sunny and Baolong, Mirror Game involves a race against time to stop a villainous illusionist that became a viral sensation by hypnotizing people online.
All About Money is a crime drama webcomic by BaStards and Siho that follows three friends who unexpectedly find a billion dollars and are subsequently dragged into the illicit world of crime and corruption.
The projects will be backed by Momo Film Co’s parent company, Beach House Pictures who have been rapidly increasing their investment into international scripted entertainment in recent years.
“We are excited about supporting this unique collaboration between Singapore and Korea.” said Beach House Pictures CD, Donovan Chan. “Together, we have plans to launch even more webtoon adapted series across Asia and bring these Asian IPs to territories beyond including the U.S. and the UK.”
Beach House Pictures is an independent production company thay owns and operates several production businesses throughout Asia including Vesuvius Pictures, Momo Film Co., Riverland Entertainment and Space Lion Studios.
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