Keanu Reeves samurai film Hidari seeks new partner after US talks stall

Japan's Dwarf Studios is hunting for a new backer for Hidari, its stop-motion samurai film with Keanu Reeves as the lead voice, after funding talks with a US company stalled.

Co-founder and head producer Matsumoto Noriko disclosed the financing status at the Busan International Film Festival's Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), a rights marketplace attached to the festival, Variety reported.

The US company had offered to pay the entire budget in exchange for all rights to the film. Dwarf wanted to keep half.

To hold that position, Matsumoto said she asked Questry chief executive Ibe Tomonobu to find the Japanese share of the money. Those talks then collapsed when her US counterparts lost their jobs during upheaval in Hollywood.

Questry has now set up a special purpose company for Hidari. The structure is a separate company organised for one film, which lets overseas and local investors put money in side by side.

Dwarf took the early risk itself. It made a Hidari pilot short in 2023, paid for in part through crowdfunding, and that footage helped bring Reeves aboard.

Hidari is directed by Kawamura Masashi and produced by Dwarf, Whatever and Tecarat. It is made in stop-motion, animation created by photographing puppets frame by frame.

Reeves voices Hidari Jingoro, the central character, in what Whatever describes as his first role in a Japanese original production, Whatever reported. His casting was announced at the Cannes Market in May, Animation Magazine reported.

Matsumoto spoke during the Producer Hub session "Co-Producing with Japan: Opportunities and Challenges", co-hosted by VIPO. She laid out the stop-start path from pilot to Reeves to the search for a split-rights deal.

For fans, this means the star and the puppets are in place but the money is not yet locked. The next step is a partner willing to share, not own, the film outright.