The partnership kicks off with the UTA x Gold House x Variety Industry Night at the Park Hyatt on Friday (Oct. 9). The two companies will then stage a panel, “Hollywood & the Asian Diaspora,” at the Asian Contents & Film Market on Oct. 10, before moving to Seoul on Oct. 13 for a speakeasy party for cross-cultural creatives, funders and founders.
David Park, a senior partner and agent at UTA, notes that the agency has worked in Asia, particularly Korea and Japan, for several years. “Adding Gold House has allowed us to level up, quite frankly,” he says.
Neither side has a formal, ongoing program in place yet. Gold House launched Gold House Studios, its in-house production arm, this year, and Yi plans to use the Korea trip to meet creatives the company wants to work with. “The partnership to us is really all about network and ecosystem building,” she says.
Yi is also eyeing Korean talent-led projects. She won’t name names, but says a singer from a group that would come up “within your first couple” if one listed the top K-pop acts in the world has approached Gold House about making a film.
“She can call anybody at all. But I think the way that her team wanted to approach us is like, ‘You guys might not be exactly the people, for whatever reason. However, we trust that you know who the right people are if it is not you, and to help us really navigate the U.S.,’” Yi says. “That’s a super-intimidating ask, especially when you’re coming in in a new medium that audiences might not necessarily associate with you.”
Gold House hopes to guide the strategy and possibly work on the production, and Yi sees overseas talent looking for “a safe place to land” as a pipeline worth exploring while in Korea.
He would also like to see Korea tackle horror comedy. “Comedy is so culturally subjective, it’s harder to travel. But when embedded so intricately and so deeply with horror, for example, that could work, and it could be a huge hit,” Park says.
For Yi, one gap is capital. She is keen to see whether Asia-based private investors would back U.S. independent films, an asset class she says many individuals in U.S. indie film treat “like philanthropy.” She is also scouting Korean unscripted producing partners.
Park is on board, noting that Bong Joon Ho and “Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk can now stay in Seoul and still win Oscars and Emmys. He points to his client Na Hong-Jin, whose “Hope” he calls the biggest movie out of Korea. “Identifying him before he did ‘The Wailing’ would be incredible,” Park says.
Gold House has an executive producer role on Stephanie Ahn’s “Bedford Park,” which is screening at the festival.
