Spackman Entertainment Acquires South Korea's Simplex Films

Simplex's first feature, period comedy 'Jesters: The Game Changers,' will be released in Korea by Warner Brothers later this summer.

Spackman Entertainment has reached a deal to acquire Simplex Films, a startup film studio based in South Korea, for approximately $2.4 million (3.3 million Singapore dollars).

The acquisition adds to Spackman's collection of Korean film financing and production subsidiaries. The group said in a statement Monday that Simplex will help "expand [our] film production capacity annually and strengthen the performance of [our] film production business." The company's other Korean film outfits include Zip Cinema, the company behind box office hits like Default and The Priests, and Novus MediaCorp, a financier and digital rights distributor.

Simplex is headed by Korean industry veteran Lim Ji-young, producer of CJ's hit comedy Miss Granny and Park Jung-woo's sci-fi thriller Deranged. She also previously served as vice president of the Korean Producers Guild.

Simplex's first feature, the period comedy Jesters: The Game Changers, is set for a Korean theatrical release in August courtesy of Warner Bros. The company is said to have a substantial slate of Korean-language film projects moving toward production. A Bolt From the Blue, a remake of a 2014 Japanese comedy drama, will be next up, shooting later this year.

Directed by Kim Joon-ho, Jesters stars Cho Jin-woong (The Spy Gone North) and Son Hyun-joo (Ordinary Person). The film follows a troop of clowns who spread rumors around the kingdom to manipulate politics.

Founded and headed by Charles Choi Spackman, Spackman Entertainment Group is headquartered in Seoul but trades on the Singapore stock exchange.