30 Apr – HOOQ, one of the largest Video on Demand services in Southeast Asia, recently announced their latest initiative at the APOS convention in Indonesia. The initiative is a competition called the HOOQ Filmmakers Guild, a Southeast Asia-wide project with the goal of turning the most imaginative TV series ideas of filmmakers into reality, according to Tech media platform e27. Film professionals, including directors, producers and scriptwriters, are invited to send in scripts and treatments for a TV series idea. After a call for series or mini-series pitches, the company will choose the best five and the creators of those chosen few will be given a funding of USD30, 000 to convert their ideas into a pilot episode that will debut on HOOQ. The best of the five will be decided by HOOQ subscribers and a panel of judges made up of film talents from Hollywood and Asia, and their pilot will be converted into a full series produced and aired on HOOQ. Applicants from Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam can send in their scripts from 1 June until 1 August 2017.
HOOQ, backed by two Hollywood Studios, will be releasing five original contents, which aims to satisfy the "huge thirst for high-quality, unique Asian stories, told from an Asian Perspective," said the CEO of HOOQ, Peter Bithos, as quoted by THR. The five projects are revenge drama "Marline The Murdered in Four Acts", which is showing at Cannes film festival' Directors Fortnight section next month; "On The Job", helmed by Filipino director Erik Matti; "Critical Eleven", an Indonesian movie based on drama "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta"; "Sweet 20", an Indonesian remake of South Korea's "Miss Granny"; and "The T Party", a Filipino rom-com.