Cannes – China’s Asian Union and Germany’s Action Concept are joining forces to produce a slate of 4-5 action movies for release on numerous platforms across China and Europe. The first movie, Mission Overseas, has a budget of US$5 million, and tells the story of a Chinese chauffeur who comes to Germany to get back his boss’ kidnapped daughter. He has to team up with a down-on-his-luck German detective who’s reluctant to help. Producers from China are Liu Xiao Lin and Ma Zhongjun who co-produced Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and were involved in the production of Seven Swords, and from Germany Hermann Joha. Scriptwriting will be overseen by Stefan Retzbach, cast and director have yet to be announced. The movie will be shot in English, on location in China and Germany. “It’s a classic buddy action movie with a lot of humour and family values”, says Liu, executive director of Asian Union, “there is a great demand for this genre in China amongst a wide audience” “Ever since we released the Clown in China theatrically our productions have been very successful at Chinese theatres,” adds Hermann Joha, CEO of Action Concept. “Add to that now a mixed Chinese-European cast, high speed action Eastern and Western style and you get a lot of box office potential”. Distribution worldwide except China and Germany will be handled by Wolfgang Wilke from Action Image, the distribution arm of Action Concept.