The Arvin Chen-directed, Cuba-set, restricted collection begins manufacturing this week.

I.E. Entertainment, the worldwide distribution outfit based and run by trade veterans Indra and Erlina Suharjono, has come on board to deal with worldwide gross sales for Cathay Film Company’s “Coolie.”

The TV miniseries is impressed by the little-known historical past of enslaved Chinese ‘coolies’ in Cuba within the 1860s. It begins taking pictures this week within the Dominican Republic and also will embrace areas in Panama.

I.E. Entertainment will introduce “Coolie” to consumers for the primary time on the Asia Television Forum & Market (ATF), which runs this week in Singapore.

The eight-episode English and Chinese language drama collection is a global production from Meileen Choo’s Singapore-based Cathay Film Company and contains a multinational ensemble forged from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cuba and Colombia.

Arvin Chen (“Love in Taipei,” “Mama Boy”) is directing. In-Ah Lee (“Land of Plenty,” “Don’t Come Knockin’” “The Way I Spent the End of the World”) is the collection’ govt producer. Ed Buhr (“Unhung Hero”) is producing whereas Choo is creator and showrunner.

In the mid-1800s, when the African slave commerce was outlawed all through the Americas, plantation house owners in Cuba as a substitute started trafficking indentured servants from China and different components of Asia. These, so-called coolies have been usually handled as slaves, however some built-in into Cuban society and joined the nation’s combat for independence from Spain. The offered a low-cost workforce for farms, eating places, factories and have been instrumental in establishing Chinatowns internationally.

With Hong Kong actor Louise Wong (“A Guilty Conscience,” “Anita,” “Table for Six”) within the lead position as a younger girl who departs from southern China to marry a political exile engaged on a sugarcane plantation in Cuba, the narrative sees her be a part of forces with servants and African slaves searching for freedom. But the plantation proprietor’s spurned spouse and her ex-lover conspire in opposition to them, triggering a collection of scheming and retaliatory strikes that go away Cuba’s destiny within the steadiness.

“After reading the script and discussing at length with Meileen, we were fascinated by the world of ‘Coolie’ and the potential of an epic series which we feel has so much to say. Meileen has created a story that is fresh and truly visionary, which will undoubtedly connect with a global audience. We’re excited to bring such a compelling project to the ATF,” Indra and Erlina Suharjono mentioned.

Their I.E. Entertainment stretches throughout content material growth, manufacturing, advertising, and distribution. The sisters every have some 30 years of expertise within the leisure enterprise. Indra’s background is in brand-franchise administration within the media, leisure, licensing, and merchandizing. Erlina’s focus has been extra within the movement image enterprise, particularly in buying, distributing, exhibiting, and producing native movies.

I.E. is the unique distributor of Cathay-Keris traditional Malay and Chinese titles. In November 2022, it turned the unique worldwide distribution accomplice of BEC World PLC exterior of Thailand, with CLMV and Greater China being non-exclusive.

“Having worked with both Indra and Erlina before, I very much look forward to reuniting on this project and embarking on what we anticipate being a fruitful journey with distribution partners globally. With their combined experience and knowledge of the industry, I’m confident that I.E. Entertainment are well aligned to bring this story to market,” mentioned Choo.

Joining Wong within the forged of “Coolie” are: veteran Hong Kong actress Nina Paw Hee-Ching (“The Way We Are,” “Lost in Time”), Taiwanese actor Joseph Chang (“Eternal Summer,” “Girlfriend Boyfriend”), Colombian actor and TV persona Mauricio Henao (“La Herencia,” “Panama”), and Cuban actors Camila Arteche (“El Acompanante,” “Sergio & Serguei”), Sian Chiong (“La Mexicana y el Guero,” “Fidel’s Daughter”) and Mario Cimarro (“Romeo + Juliet, “Pasión de Gavilanes”).

Choo’s household has been a serious participant in Southeast Asian cinema for the reason that 1935 institution of the Associated Theatres chain. Cathay-Keris was a dominant manufacturing studio in Singapore, rivalling Shaw Bros, within the Nineteen Fifties.

Choo turned the CEO of the Cathay Organisation Group of Companies in 1985. The group divested the exhibition enterprise in 2017 and Choo relinquished her publish when she retired in 2018. She stays chairman of the Cathay Organisation and began to discover new potentialities of movie and TV manufacturing by her Cathay Film Company, based in 2020.