“Mojo,” a rom-com film whose cast of oddball characters includes a cow who has gone viral, has been set as the first feature to emerge from Sympatico, a U.K.-Malaysia coproduction venture that launched last year.
The film is to be directed by Min Lim, who also heads operations at Sympatico. She already has significant writing, directing and live venue producing experience, with credits that include executive producing the multi-season Asian adaptation of “The Bridge,” showrunner and director on the multi-award-winning Malaysian adaptation of the ITV/Sundance drama “Liar,” and as co-director of the reboot of the popular Malaysian sitcom “Kopitiam.”
The story of an ambitious city boy who finds love and meaning in simple, rural life “Mojo” is scripted by Honey Ahmad (“Motif,” “Saladin,” “Walinong Sari”). Director Zahir Omar (“Fly By Night,” “The Bridge”) is onboard as creative consultant. The film is a coproduction between Sympatico and a Mocha Chai Laboratories and Mocha Chai’s Michelle Chang is set as producer alongside Sympatico’s Richard Johns (“Shadow of the Vampire,” “The Liability”).
Production will take place largely on location in the cinematically stunning northern Malaysian state of Perlis. It is anticipated that it will be ready for release in June 2025.
The U.K.’s SC Films International is set as the film’s international sales agent. The company is also currently representing action titles Peter Facinelli’s “On Fire” (U.S.) and Singapore-Indonesian “Orang Ikan” and Australian fantasy-horror title “Dusk.”
Sympatico pitches “Mojo,” as a film for local and international audiences with a witty, romantic and heartfelt angle that invites comparison with “Ted Lasso” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” An official synopsis reads: “Adi is a rising star at Moo Magic Farms, boosting sales by turning a distinctive-looking cow, Mojo, into a viral sensation and helping the company aggressively hoover up small rural dairy farms in pursuit of profit. But in the region of Kampong Semerah Padi (KSP), one small farmer, Atan, and his daughter, Ayu, are holding out and encouraging other farms to do the same. When Atan kidnaps Mojo as leverage, all sorts of chaos ensues. Adi travels undercover to KSP to retrieve Mojo (who he’s actually very attached to) and convince the villagers to sell, but nothing goes to plan. He ends up falling in love with the villagers, the simple farming life – and Ayu and must choose between what he wants and perhaps what he truly needs.”
Lim said: “[‘Mojo’] has brilliant and quirky characters plus stunning backdrops, together with universal ‘fish out of water’ and ‘David Vs Goliath’ themes [..] At its core, though, it’s a story about faith (of all kinds) and sacrifice and of doing right by others, of working for the greater good rather than our own personal success.”
Sympatico is a production partnership combining the U.K.’s Argo Films and Malaysia’s Double Vision. Intended to cover film and TV, it last year unveiled a development slate of six projects that it says will be authentically Asian.
Double Vision is the production arm of the Vision New Media group that has over 35 years of experience in features, dramas, sitcoms, reality-game shows, magazine shows, documentaries, children’s programs and variety shows. Double Vision has in-house production and post-production facilities, earned an International Emmy nomination for its hit Malaysian-Filipino coproduction “Kahit Isang Saglit” and was responsible for Asian versions of hit global drama series “The Bridge” and “Liar.”
