Pacifica Media
Welcome to Pacifica Media
欢迎您到太平洋媒体
Like the ocean for which it is named, Pacifica Media bridges the East and the West. We tell a wide range of Asian based stories with compelling narratives and high production values to provide insight into our rapidly integrating world. We invite you to review them.
Empires
A ten part TV series.
Opium is the source of power and immense fortunes in 19th century China, where political tensions are escalating beyond control.
Taking advantage of Peking’s eroding rule, British traders flock to China with missionary zeal and impose their desire to trade opium from their Indian colonies in exchange for silk, tea and silver.
The Emperor of China discovers that a member of his court is fatally addicted to opium. With millions of his people hopelessly addicted to the drug, resistance to the world’s most lucrative trade starts to take form.
After the dissolution of the East India Company’s exclusive monopoly to trade in the Far East, retired naval captains Lord Napier and Charles Elliott are sent to defend Britain’s vital economic interests. Before long, the mighty British Empire stands poised to clash with a decaying, insular and technologically backwards Middle Kingdom.
Led by Captain Wong, Chinese troops shut down local opium dens and rip pipes from the clenched hands of lowly addicts. An official named Lin Zexu issues anti-opium edicts and circulates posters warning of penalties for anyone caught smoking or trading "the foreign mud".
As the trade imbalance explodes and China’s silver coffers are drained, the Emperor of China’s attempts to suspend the opium trade are eventually met with full-scale armed conflict from superior British forces.
The first of the Opium Wars had started, and with it China’s "century of humiliation". Visit the Empires website
The Golden Triangle in Asia, was the source of the world’s heroin supply for much of the 60s through the 90s. Located at the intersection of Myanmar (Burma), Laos and northern Thailand the Golden Triangle was where the opium poppies were grown and processed into heroin.
And the biggest supplier was Khun Sa, a Shan State freedom fighter leader and also a ruthless drug lord. The charismatic and shrewd Khun Sa fought his way to the top over local rivals, ultimately controlling 60% of the world’s heroin supply. He and his army of 20,000 controlled the trade for almost thirty years.
Number 1 on the FBI most wanted list, he traveled freely, entertained celebrity guests and even made a brash proposal to sell his drugs to the US government.
When a DEA agent in New York is killed and an American President promises revenge, the War on Drugs takes a new focus, China White heroin.
A colorful group of DEA agents, starting in the streets of New York, eventually find out all the members of Khun Sa's international distribution network. Finally, in co-operation with the Thai government, they initiated operation Tiger Trap that ultimately destroyed his empire and force him into retirement.
Golden Triangle is a ten-episode TV series with a four year run about the failure of War on Drugs. The first two seasons are about Khun Sa growth and destruction with the subsequent seasons about the Vietnam era support of the Laotian hill tribes heroin production supported by the CIA.
THE LAST PANTHEON: YEAR OF THE RABBIT
A 10-episode Television Series by PACIFICA MEDIA
Year Of The Rabbit, has all the angst and comedy of a high school, coming-of-age story mixed with Asian mythology which promises plenty of action and thrills.
Rebecca Tokki, an ordinary American teenage girl of mixed Korean and Germanic parentage, finds herself ‘conscripted’ into the PANTHEON to assume the role of “Rabbit” after her father‘s death.
She sets out to uncover the mysteries involving the Pantheon and the truth behind her father‘s murder, whilst juggling with her relocation to the extremely unfamiliar Seoul and navigating the treacherous waters of High School. Can Rebecca cope with the various demands from the all-powerful Pantheon? With her new-found super power, will she be able to unmask her father‘s killer?
Branded : The brand is dead, long live the Brand!
In Singapore, a fast-paced, comedy-drama swirls around the nucleus of an advertising powerhouse.
When police bust an illegal online gambling operation in Atlantic City, a handsome young man named Jason narrowly avoids going to prison when his influential father intervenes. However, his vivacious sister is left in a coma when their escape motorcycle crashes, mid-selfie.
Suddenly aware of his fatherly duties, Ming Lee reaches out to the last of his conscious children in the best way he knows how. One of Singapore’s more Machiavellian moguls, Ming screws over his competition from the comfort of a Bentley driven by his overpaid chauffeur, Thomas.
Unwilling to follow in his Dad’s unethical footsteps and realizing that he’s lucky to be a free man, Jason is resigned to his fate as a ‘desk monkey’. Miraculously, his woeful lack of experience at a prestigious ad agency works in his favor.
Cassandra, the head of the agency, is a formidable character that shares a murky past with Jason’s father. As her Empire mysteriously crumbles, she takes an interest in Jason, who soon provokes the wrath of his co-workers by ‘improving’ the work of a hotshot creative duo.
Instantly intrigued and overwhelmed, Jason starts to fall for his whip-smart colleague, the slick and sexy Annie. Verbally sparring with Jason, it’s clear from their lightning quick banter that he has met his match.
Just as Jason seems to be finding his purpose in life, he discovers that the ad agency faces collapse and that his own father has been discrediting the agency in order to buy it at an undervalued price.
Battling for control, Cassandra pins the future of her floundering agency on the success of a single whitening cream commercial. But, when the auteur director suddenly disappears from the set and the skincare spokes model comes down with hives, it’s going to take a miracle to stop the agency from imploding.
Dead Tide The TV Series
“DeadTide” is a story that examines the meaning of “power” and human’s obsession with it by means of a Zombie Genre.
Set during World War II in the jungles of Malaya, three POWs (a Dutch Nurse, a British Captain and an Australian soldier) fleeing from the Japanese army are rescued by a group of Chinese Communists. Outnumbered and under heavy fire from the Japanese, the fleeing squad makes it to their hideout, just barely.
Seeing no way out, the group prepares to sacrifice it all when suddenly, the Japanese soldiers are attacked by what appears to be another rebel army. Something evil is now amongst them – evil that none of them are prepared for – an ARMY OF DEAD. Now the question must be asked – who is the real enemy? Isolated and with hope fading rapidly, our ragtag band of brothers and sisters in arms discover that this ‘Army of Dead’ is controlled by the last surviving descendant of China’s imperial court magician, one vengeful individual. To stop him, these warriors, already hardened by combat, must stop him from plunging the world into darkness. Will they be able to put aside fears and personal agendas to defeat evil? And if Evil is finally defeated, who then will gain control of the dead horde – an army that continues to grow exponentially…
To see the sizzler reel, click here
Foreign 2 Me!
“He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left”
Moving on from High School to University is a big step towards independence, but what if that school is in a different city, another country and across the world and different language?
This is Foreign 2 Me!
Each episode follows six (6) chosen INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS who switch sides of the continent in order to further their studies. This means going way OUTSIDE their COMFORT ZONE and far from home to study in a foreign country they’ve never been to before. All they know is what TV or Social Media platforms taught them, but will reality meet expectations?
The CLASH of cultures, the universal WORRY of parents, the beginning of ADULTHOOD and finding themselves, the PREJUDICES and/or WELCOME they come across and the ACADEMIC as well as usual LIFE CHALLENGES that students today face are all explored in Foreign 2 Me!
Some form of culture shock is inevitable. Some people can adapt fairly quickly, as long as they keep an open mind and leave their precepts behind.
But is it that easy?
World Citizen : Who will master local ways of life?
In a series of arduous challenges, twelve contestants from around the planet must learn to master traditional Thai skills. Their cultural trials include local activities such as buffalo farming, operating a street-food stall, performing puppet theater before a local audience and, of course, elephant-riding.
Embedded with Thai families, contestants are trained by experts in a variety of uniquely enchanting locations. We follow them as they experience life in a village surrounded by lush jungle, a remote fishing community and the nation’s bustling, neon-lit capital, Bangkok. Competing in two teams, contestants will have to excel in their weekly challenges in order to avoid elimination. In every episode the worst-performer on the losing team faces dismissal by our panel of judges until just one remains who take home the coveted title of "World Citizen", and the grand prize.
Lost in Paradise - When you’re lost, check into Paradise.
A fifteen part comedy series, "Lost in Paradise" delivers the first truly pan-Asian comedy dedicated to the traditional values of family, love, and duty…by whatever means necessary.
At the fading "Lost in Paradise" resort in Penang, the owner, the domineering Madame Lee, is in crisis as she copes with the fallout of several disastrous PR stunts that now threaten to bankrupt the resort, engulf it in scandal, and – most unbearable of all -- drag it down to three-star shame.
She has fixated on her only son, Justin, as the solution to all her problems: he will take over the resort and return it to its former glory. He will also give her a beautiful grandchild from a beautiful Chinese wife that she will help pick, of course.
A simple, elegant plan that would work perfectly if not for Justin.
A successful New York artist, Justin lives about 15,000 kilometers from his mother precisely to escape the fate she has in mind for him. He’s the darling both of the downtown gallery scene and of his very WASPy (read: very not-Chinese) model girlfriend. And while he loves Madame Lee, her plans for him are almost as appetizing as week old fish balls. Almost.
So when circumstances conspire to trap Justin at the resort during his annual visit home, Madame Lee seizes her chance and she will stop at nothing – spying, scheming and sabotage are just for starters – to match him with a suitable mate and have him abandon this artist nonsense once and for all.
It’s game on -- The Dragon Lady vs. Basquiat – in an improbable battle of wits that eventually involves nearly all the resort’s strange characters-in-residence: Madame Lee’s dead husband (henpecked even unto the afterlife), a Lothario muay Thai instructor with a passion for selfies and disquietingly tiny Speedos, a silent Indonesian maid who scours the guests’ rooms for "trace evidence" (of what not even she is entirely clear), a Korean sexpot so addicted to plastic surgery that she’s ISO certified as more silicone than human, a hallucinatory Japanese director who is quite certain he’s Kurosawa come again, and a mumbling, laconic Indian bartender whose pearls of wisdom would set everyone right if only they could understand what he was saying.
Welcome to "Lost in Paradise." Shangrila it ain’t but we still call it home. We hope you will too.
Pacifica Media is dedicated to delivering high-quality, original entertainment to global audiences that blends Western narrative structure and production values with Asian content and sensibilities to tell stories with universal appeal.
With a slate that covers a wide variety of genres – from historical epics to contemporary thrillers, from action-adventure to sit-coms – Pacifica operates at the nexus of multiple trends in the industry:
* the rise of "borderless" entertainment consumption: our films and show can find a home in theaters and living rooms anywhere in the world;
* the proliferation of entertainment delivery platforms (e.g., streaming, VOD, niche cable channels, etc.): interested audiences will always have access to our content, which minimizes the risks in development and production;
* increased appetite among Western audiences for non-Western stories and characters: we can freely draw on our experience with Asian narratives and sensibilities to appeal to global audiences;
* the emergence of Asia (and China in particular) as a major entertainment player both creatively and financially: we can exploit our physical presence in the region to access investors, distributors, and creative talent.
Pacifica is uniquely situation to exploit these trends, with a management and creative team that combines seasoned Western industry professionals with deep roots in Asia and Asian team members with training and experience in both Asian and Western entertainment norms.
In addition to creating first-class entertainment, Pacifica is committed to building long-term partnerships with investors and distributors, with an emphasis on equitable financing deal terms, risk minimization, and tight financial controls.
For further information
"Feel free to contact us with your comments or receive further information on any of our projects."
Marshall Kelly - CEO
Marshall is the founder and CEO of Pacifica Media. He worked as a filmmaker until thirty-five. His experience includes running the Media Dept. at a Stanford University teaching hospital for five years. After that he had a subsequent career as an entrepreneur working as the founder and CEO of five companies in New York City. He was also an author, lecturer and corporate financial advisor.
As the Creator of Empires, Branded, Year of the Rabbit, Lost in Paradise and others, he started the company to finance these projects. He attended graduate school at New York Univ.'s Dept.of Cinema Studies.
Hanna Tower - Producer
Hanna has worked in film and television for over 20 years, from commercials and music videos to serialized television and feature films.
She has held reign and ran the production offices for Showtime, Paramount, MGM, ScottFree, etc. on projects too numerous to mention. She currently works in development, budgeting and production for Pacifica.Media. Hanna has worked all over the world, speaks six languages and is a graduate of McGill Univ.
Dennis Chong - Writer/Producer
A native Singaporean, Dennis was educated at USC and UCLA's Film School. His work serves as a bridge between east and west, by producing Asian based stories using the best western narrative techniques. His award winning work as a writer, director and producer includes television shows in all genres with some optioned film scripts.
For Pacifica.Media he is the writer/producer for Branded and Dead Tide and a writer for Year of the Rabbit. He is represented by RGM Artists.
Chan Yan Yan 陳恩恩 – Producer
Singapore based Yan Yan has produced over twenty-five television series and films. She has worked in TV for MediaCorp and has produced independent films. For Pacifica.Media she is Producing Branded and Dead Tide.
Conversant in both Mandarin and English, she is key in helping design and promote projects that will serve both Asian and Western markets. She is a graduate of Univ. of Melbourne.
Rune Kuppernik
After graduating from Griffith University with a BA in Digital Screen Production in 2003 Rune joined forces with Icelandic Poppoli Pictures. He’s since helped develop a number of feature films and documentaries and has gathered extensive skills as a producer, concept developer, script writer, and cinematographer. Rune’s career also encompasses advertising, journalism and music management.
Scott Kelly – Writer
Scott’s living and working in Asia for thirty years has given him the enough experience to write from the Asian perspective. His passion is writing for cross cultural themes.
For Pacifica.Media he has written Empires and Koreastan. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley.