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Tag: Thomas Kim

  • High concept, simple story, understandable plot are key to good movies: Kross Pictures’ Thomas Kim

    High concept, simple story, understandable plot are key to good movies: Kross Pictures’ Thomas Kim

    MUMBAI: Thomas Kim, co-founder of Kross Pictures, in a candid conversation with indiantelevision.com founder CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari at The Content Hub 2020, mentioned how he started his career as an investment banker. He also shared how working in The Walt Disney Company and Pirates of the Caribbean inspired him to become a filmmaker.

    Kross Pictures, an international film and television production company, made the commercially successful movie The Devotion of Suspect X.

    Kim echoed, "I was working as a management consultant for a few years but never really enjoyed that work. I had an opportunity to go to Hollywood and work at The Walt Disney company. This was the first time I saw how movies are made. One particular project Pirates of the Caribbean opened my eyes to filmmaking. The motion pictures group came to my group which was in charge of making a theme park called imaginary group. They made a movie based on the storyboard. This actually taught me that films can be made with any type of stories. So, I quit Disney and started my company in 2003. I am mostly active in Korea and China in making films and TV series based on famous IPs, mostly in comics and novels. In 2015 I had the pleasure to come to India and worked on a film project called ‘Teen’ with Amitabh Bachchan. This was my first experience of working in Bollywood. Today I have offices in Seoul, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Hyderabad.”

    Kim, who is very active in China, made one feature film and a TV series and both were commercially hit. The Devotion of Suspect X became a mega-hit with Rs 4 crore box office collection.

    Kross Pictures currently has over 15 features and TV content both in Hindi and the South and aspires to become a premium production house. “I believe storytelling is universal. The story which works in one country can work in other countries too. With that vision I have a team in Korea, India, and America, who are constantly looking at projects,” he stated.

    In 2014 Kim met Balaji Telefilms' Tanuj Garg in Korea for a project. This meeting led Kim to come to India and explore Indian filmmaking market.

    Sharing his Indian vision of Kross Pictures Kim said: “My aspiration for my Mumbai team is to grow to be a premier production house and maybe possibly a studio in the near future."

    Kim believes that not all stories are able to mobilise in foreign countries, other than the one which do commercially well. According to Kim, there are key three aspects for a good movie: the element of high concept, a simple story and an understandable plotline. Also, not all stories can localise. A lot of Indian stories are great but it may not work in the Korean market.

    Kim, who is currently working on the adaptation of the Bollywood film Kahaani, thinks Believe Oh Baby! – a Telugu movie was a great combination of storytelling and execution. Successful stories or successful adaptation requires a good understanding of the original material. He finds Indian films exciting and emotional. However, there is a lack of disciplined storytelling. That's what the Kross Pictures wants to bring to India.

    Sharing details on the necessary ingredients required for a commercially successful film, Kim said, “We try to identify stories which are exciting to the Indian audience. We also look at commercial success. Combining the two we constantly look for stories in Korea, Japan and China that have a track record of being a commercial success.”

  • Why Kross Pictures’ South Korea CEO Thomas Kim is happy with India

    MUMBAI: He is a South Korean who is plugging away with his ambition to leave his imprint on both, Bollywood and Indian television. And that’s one of the reasons why Kross Pictures CEO Thomas Kim set up an office in Mumbai in 2016, adding to his Los Angeles and Seoul outposts.

    From the company’s stable emerged the Amitabh Bachchan-Nawazuddin Siddique-starrer the critically acclaimed Te3n last year, which was adapted from the South Korean film Montage.

    Kim is excited about his next project for the Indian market: a web series for Amazon Prime called Suspect X, which is based on the Japanese author Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X. Kim acquired the film production rights from the author in 2011 and even signed a co-production agreement with Balaji Motion Pictures in 2013.

    However, that has been put on the backburner. “Earlier we thought to do this as a feature film but then this opportunity came so we are now actively developing the extended version of this script,” says Kim.

    Right now his goal is to get the third novel of the Detective Galieo series on the production floor. “We plan to start shooting Suspect X later this year. It is going to be shot like a long movie.”

    Why did he choose to go with an SVOD service like Amazon Prime and not a TV channel for Suspect X for his second Indian foray?

    Kim explains: “Indian channels are more conservative. They are less active in trying out different things and budgets are lower than we are used to at international levels. The kind of content we are bringing requires certain level of budgets. We were working with a big Hollywood production company and we were trying to create the Indian version of the show and we presented this idea to all the major GECs — Sony, Zee and Star. They all liked it but balked at writing the cheque that it required. On the television side, I think it will take a longer time, but on films and OTT side it’s possible.”

    However, that’s not all. Kim is in production pitches with both general entertainment channels and other OTT services such as Hotstar and ViuClip for other shows. Altogether, he has 15 projects lined up for the Indian market, a mix of TV shows for TV channels and OTT services and films for theatrical release.

    Says he: “We are planning to bring Korean stories so that these could be ‘Indianised’ by Indians for the Indian viewers. We will be teaming up with a number of talented people and companies. Directors such as Sujoy Ghosh, an actor like Amitabh Bachchan, companies like Phantom and Amazon to name a few.”

    Amongst the projects which he expects to announce soon figure two South Korean film adaptations for India with big stars — Miracle in Cell No 7 and Miss Granny. Additionally, he’s working on taking Indian content overseas as well. Recently, Kross Pictures flashed the top dollar and bought the rights to Queen and Kahani, and is planning to have them remade in Korea as well soon. And, he is also looking out for Indian TV shows that can travel.

    What is driving this South Korean to lay such a heavy emphasis on Korean and Indian content and work as a bridge between the two nations’ film and TV creative industries?

    “The Indian market is huge; it comprises half or our global portfolio, and hence it is a very important market for us. In the long term, I think it can be bigger than Korea,” he elaborates. “Both countries being Asian… can come up with stories that can resonate with viewers and film-goers. The reason Indian-South Korean exchange has not been too big is that so far the two countries haven’t been active in exchanging cultures. Starting now, I think it will grow in future and soon we will see more and more Korean films remade in Bollywood and vice versa.”