REX/Shutterstock
Rachel Song, the producer behind the Sundance Film Festival competition pics A Kid Like Jake starring Jim Parsons and Claire Danes and Nancystarring Andrea Riseborough, is opening up shop in her native China. She unveiled during Hong Kong’s ongoing Filmart the launch of XS Productions, which will focus on the development and production of Chinese-language film and TV projects with fresh creative talents and international appeal.
She will be president of the shingle, which will be headquartered in Beijing and eye three to five Chinese-language film and/or TV projects a year. The first under the banner is Yoyo, from writer-director Xing You and starring Lu Huang and Hong Yue. Principal photography is set to start in August with Untitled Management’s Laura Rister producing.
XS Productions fare will be developed and produced in-house with the company self-financing some projects; it plans to launch a film and TV fund in 2019 to further aid that aim. Execs aboard at the new outfit include CFO Tao Cheng; VP Development & Productions Julie Zhang; and Director of Business Development Tian Zhang.
“There is a vast and growing number of young Chinese filmmakers, creators and storytellers who are looking for that next step, looking to get eyes on their content so they can continue to develop new projects and work alongside other filmmakers to bring recognition and visibility to their stories,” Song said in announcing the venture. “We want to be a catalyst for them, and operate as a company that invests in creative ambition and powerful material that can channel with the millennium and cinefile audiences both in China and overseas.”
Song’s Los Angeles-based XS Media, which launched in 2017, produced both Jake, which was acquired by IFC Films in Park City, and Nancy, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for writer-director Christina Choe and was picked up by Samuel Goldwyn Films. The U.S.-based company will continue to produce indie films for the English-language marketplace.
[contf] [contfnew] 
Deadline
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
