South Korea’s CJ ENM & Saudi Arabia’s Manga Productions strike content pact

LR: Koo Chang-gun & Essam Bukhary

South Korea’s CJ ENM has struck a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to create new programming with Saudi Arabian content company Manga Productions and started filming on its first wholly owned Mandarin remake.

CJ ENM’s deal with Managa Productions will see it co-producing and distributing content across animation, TV series, films, webtoons, infrastructure and more.

The deal is the latest expansion for Manga Productions, which focuses on the production and distribution of animations and games, having recently co-produced films with Japan’s Toei Animation.

Essam Bukhary, CEO of Manga Productions, said the pact is “an essential opportunity to reach Korean audiences with rich Saudi content for the first time through CJ ENM and introduce Korean creative contents to Arab world.”

Koo Chang-gun, CEO of CJ ENM, added thatg it provided his company with the opportunity to “accelerate its [expansion] into the Middle Eastern market and spearhead the expansion of K-culture within the Middle East.”

CJ ENM previously signed an MOU with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture in June 2022 to strengthen cultural ties. CJ ENM has also hosted K-culture festival KCON in Saudi Arabia for two consecutive years since its launch in 2022.

Mandrain first

In related news, CJ ENM’s Hong Kong unit has unveiled filming is underway on its first Mandarin remake.

Breeze By The Sea, which was unveiled last year, is a $3m, 12-episode adaptation of by K drama Top Star U Back, which premiered in Korea and worldwide in 2018.

It follows a narcissistic top star who finds himself exiled to an outlying island after a scandal, where he meets a lovable B&B owner and adjusts to his new life.

CJ ENM HK has previously worked on Mandarin shows such as Mom, Don’t Do That! but Breeze By The Sea marks its wholly owned adaptation.

The series stars Taiwanese actors including on-screen sweethearts Bolin Chen and Puff Kuo, Charles Lin, Tuo Tsung-hua and Ma Nian-Hsien.