Cappu Films takes worldwide sales on AI-rebuilt Overstake

Hong Kong sales company Cappu Films has taken worldwide sales rights to "Overstake," a sci-fi action thriller from writer-director Stas Mareev that was shot as a live-action feature and is now being rebuilt with generative AI, as first reported by Variety. Cappu is introducing the title to buyers at the Busan International Film Festival's Asian Contents & Film Market, or ACFM, which runs October 10 to 13 at BEXCO in Busan.

The AI work is not finished. Buyers in Busan will see a promo reel and a handful of finished sequences, Variety reported, which makes the market presentation a sales pitch on a partially completed film.

The film follows a wounded veteran who enters a deadly betting game for a life-changing payout. He has two hours to cross an industrial city and keep his ex-wife alive, while strangers get offers on their phones to save him or stop him. The game's organizers turn the pair's fight for survival into a show. The cast is Konstantin Adaev, Vika Tokareva, Oleg Chernov, Konstantin Sidikhin, Denis Starkov and Sergey Russkin.

Mareev described the work as an expansion of a film he already made. "'Overstake' is a chance to return to a film I already directed and rebuild its world at a scale that was impossible for us before," he said. "The performances and story remain the foundation, while generative AI allows me to rethink the environments, action and visual language without losing the human core of the film."

Janice Woo of Cappu Films said the genre fit drove the acquisition. "We've handled international sales for many films in this genre, and sci-fi and action are particular strengths for Cappu," she said. "We were impressed by Stas's promo and look forward to introducing the film to our distribution partners in Busan."

Mareev, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, has 25 years of film and television experience. On his own site he calls the rebuild "HANDICAP 2.0," an ongoing experiment built from one of his completed live-action features, with the original performances and editing kept in place while the surrounding world is rebuilt.

Cappu Films is an international film and television sales company, according to its own site, where "Overstake," "Fox Hunt" and "Operation Doolittle" carry trailers. Its Busan lineup also includes "Ephemera," Shan Jiang's Tribeca title; the nine-episode WWII series "Operation Doolittle"; "Lion Fist"; Joy Hopwood's "Her Last Laugh"; and the action comedy "Zombie Plane," starring Vanilla Ice, Sophie Monk and Chuck Norris.

Rebuilding a finished film with AI is a newer sales pitch than generating one from scratch. Gazettely reported that the market's InnoAsia program runs over the same four days and lists Google DeepMind, Amazon Web Services, Kling AI and Netflix's Eyeline Studios among its participants.

If distributors respond to a partly regenerated film, it could open a path for AI-assisted post-production on independent genre titles already shot.

Cappu Films' Busan slate stays on the market floor through the close of ACFM on October 13.