Posted by Larry Gleeson
Beverly Hills, California (November 9, 2019) – Leading entertainment company Arclight Films, led by chairman Gary Hamilton, announced today the company has closed worldwide distribution rights (excluding Kazakhstan), for the action adventure Tomiris, the powerful and epic portrayal of the legendary Queen Tomiris, directed by multi award-winning director Akan Satayev (“The Liquidator”) and Kazakhstan’s official Golden Globe submission.
Starring Kazakhstan superstars Almira Tursyn (as Tomiris), Adil Akhmetov (as Argun), and Aizhan Lighg (as Sardana) who perform all of their own action packed stunts, Tomiris, tells the real life story of the great Queen who along with her female warriors united divided tribes of nomadic warriors and created a powerful nation.
Queen Tomiris lived 2,500 years ago but her legacy lives on and continues to thrive today. She was a mother, warrior, and incomparable strategist known and credited for the creation of female warrior divisions. Her beauty inspired many artists in Europe, her life even described in great detail in the chronicles of Greek historian Herodotus, and her legacy still inspires thousands of women throughout Central Asia.
“The story of Queen Tomiris is extraordinarily powerful, filled with heartbreak, loss, inspiration and victory,” stated Arclight Chairman Gary Hamilton. “This feature is full of action and beautifully shot in Kazakhstan where it has received a rave reception at the box-office where it is currently in theatrical release and is the highest grossing action film in the history of Kazakhstan. We are delighted to share this special and rare film with our distribution partners around the world.”
The film is a co-production between Kazakhfilm Studios and Sataifilm. The film was released in Kazakhstan on October 1, 2019 with a strong reception, making it one of the highest grossing films in the history of Kazakhstan.
The distribution deal was negotiated directly by Gary Hamilton and Ying Ye on behalf of Arclight Films and Gaukhar (Gia) Noortas, a Kazakh-American film producer, and the head of the Honorary Consulate of Kazakhstan in Los Angeles on behalf of Sataifilm and Kazakhfilm Studios.
ABOUT ARCLIGHT FILMS
Arclight Films is one of the world’s leading international sales companies for theatrical, television and home entertainment. Arclight Films has sold over 300 motion pictures including the Best Picture Oscar® winner Crash, Golden Globe® Best Picture Nominee Bobby and Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage, Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke and the recent Oscar® nominated feature First Reformed (for Best Original Screenplay).
Arclight Films’ slate includes the Australian the action thriller Long Gone Heroes starring Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, and Maggie Q, Twist currently in production and starring Michael Caine and Here are the Young Men starring Travis Fimmel, Dean Charles Chapman, Finn Cole and Anya Taylor-Joy, the true-life prison break story, Escape From Pretoria, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Webber, the sci-fi thriller Possessor starring Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Sean Bean, Jennifer Jason Leigh, directed by Brandon Cronenberg, the 2019 Berlin Film Festival official selection Öndög from Berlin Golden Bear winning director Wang Quan’an, and the big budget Chinese co-production Killer 10 to be directed by Phillip Noyce.
The company’s recent films include the highly anticipated Hotel Mumbai starring Armie Hammer, Dev Patel, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, and Jason Isaacs, directed by Anthony Maras released in the US by Bleecker Street on March 22nd, the powerhouse actioner Triple Threat starring Chinese stars Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais and Tiger Chen, and the Vietnamese action thriller Furie both films released by Well Go USA in March 2019, and the successful biopic Jungle starring Daniel Radcliffe released by eOne.
Arclight’s past films include 2016 Official Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection Dog Eat Dog starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe, The Confirmation starring Clive Owen and Maria Bello, directed by Academy Award-winner Bob Nelson (Nebraska), 2016 Sundance Official Selection Frank & Lola starring Imogen Poots and Michael Shannon, Predestination starring Ethan Hawke released through Sony Pictures, Last Knights starring Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman, Paper Planes starring Sam Worthington, and Shangri-La Suite starring Emily Browning and Luke Grimes.
Arclight Films additionally encompasses subsidiary labels Darclight Films, the edgy genre-driven division of the company whose films include the worldwide horror hits Wolf Creek, Wolf Creek 2 and action thriller Bait 3D (the highest grossing Australian film in the history of Chinese cinema), and Easternlight, a specialty arm showcasing Asian cinema with the largest film library of any non-Asian-based indie film label. Films sold under the Easternlight banner include the worldwide blockbuster Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li, 14 Blades starring Donnie Yen, and legendary auteur Chen Kaige’s Sacrifice.
The latest additions to Easternlight includes Guardians Of The Tomb starring Kellen Lutz and Bingbing Li, Snow Girl And The Dark Crystal starring Bingbing Li, Wolf Warrior starring Wu Jing (which opened #1 at the Chinese Box Office, earning more than $32.5M in one weekend) Outcast starring Nicolas Cage, Special Id Starring Donnie Yen, and Badges Of Fury.
Arclight Films maintains a presence at all major motion picture and television festivals and markets with offices in Los Angeles, Sydney, Hong Kong, Beijing and Toronto.
About Kazakhstan Studios
The film studio was founded in 1934 as the Alma-Ata newsreel studio, in 1936 the first documentaries were released. On November 15, 1941, the Alma-Ata film studio merged with the Mosfilm and Lenfilm film studios that were evacuated to Kazakhstan to the Central United Film Studio – TsOKS, which worked in Alma-Ata until 1944 and produced 80% of all domestic feature films during the war years. On January 9, 1960, it was renamed the Kazakhfilm film studio from the Alma-Ata film studio of feature and chronicles films. In 1984, the film studio was named after the outstanding figure of national cinema Shaken Kenzhetayevich Aimanov.
In the context of decades, the average dynamics of production of feature films of the Kazakhfilm film studio, starting from the 60s of the last century, is annually: 60s – 3 films; 70s – 4 films; 80s – 7 films; 90s – 3 films. In the period from 2000 to 2008, there were 4 films. And only in the last few years, the average annual production rate is 7-10 films.
Over the years since Kazakhstan gained independence (from 1991 to 2016), the Kazakhfilm film studio has created about 136 full-length feature films (including 6 television feature films); 73 short films; 258 documentaries (including 8 documentary series); 67 animated films (of which 1 animated series, 1 full-length animated film).
In the period from 2008 to the present, over 200 films of the Kazakhfilm film studio have become participants in more than 220 festivals and international shows in 60 countries.
About Sataifilm
The company was founded in 2003 by Akan Satayev. Initially, it was engaged in the production of commercials for a long time. The first full-length film was launched in 2006, it was a sensational “Racketeer“, the film completely recouped its budget and did very good in local box office, and most importantly became one of the most loved movies of domestic audience. After the success of “Racketeer” the company moved to a permanent mode of production of multi-series and feature films. Biggest projects are pictures as “Racketeer”, “Brothers” (a multi-part full-length series), “Strayed“, “Hacker“, “Racketeer 2“, “Raiyony” and “Alone“, which was released recently not only in Kazakhstan but also in the CIS.
An interesting fact is that the company’s logo depicts the profile of Akan Satayev’s father in the role of Akane Sery in the film Trizna / Kulager of 1972. Today the company is considered one of the largest private film studios in the territory of Kazakhstan and to this day is engaged in the production of feature films and series.
