The most interesting news of the week, at least on the deal-making side of the business, saw Showbox and eOne inking a deal that will help revive the Hong Kong Legends imprint. As part of the deal, Showbox, which has the Cine Asia label, will be releasing the cream of eOne's Asian film catalogue (formerly released as Hong Kong Legends) under a new banner – Cine Asia Presents HKL. The groundbreaking HKL was launched by Medusa in 2000 and became one of the most important operations in expanding the market for films from the other side of the world. Medusa was sold to Contender, staffers from the former went on to launch Showbox, while Contender has become part of the eOne empire. HKL continued under the Contender banner, but has remained quiet in recent years. Its catalogue includes such titles as Jet Li's seminal Once Upon A Time In China series and Jackie Chan's Police Story franchise. The strategically timed deal coincides with the 70th anniversary of Bruce Lee's birth and will see Cine Asia Presents HKL re-releasing a clutch of two-disc versions of Lee classics alongside  Cine Asia's new title Young Bruce Lee (due on May 30). Showbox's Steve Rivers said: "We are absolutely delighted to be working with Entertainment One and thrilled to be handling these prestigious classic titles again." eOne's director of home entertainment Jon Bourdillon added: " We are excited about this famous library being handled by the Asian film experts Showbox; we think that the combined line up of the Cine Asia and HKL titles provide a compelling proposition for trade and consumers alike."
    
And there's more too from Cine Asia, this time concerning its recent promotional activity (see our newsletter a couple of weeks back). The company had organised a tradewide promotion that was offering consumers titles at prices from £3, and was being widely advertised alongside new release IP Man 2. The campaign activity helped shift more than 30,000 units in a week, with the two best performers, the first IP Man film and Little Big Soldier, both entering the top 100 sellers for the week. IP Man 2 itself was the week's second highest new entry, behind only Lionsgate's latest Saw title, as well as topping the iTunes action chart and also appearing in the top 10 Apple overall sellers. Rivers said: "Showbox would like to thank all their retail and on-line partners for supporting this unique Cine Asia brand opportunity."

We've already mentioned remakes (Let Me In, above) and also Asian cinema, so how about the two together? Momentum's Blood Simple, due on March 28, is one of the year's more intriguing titles. It turns the idea of a remake on its head – this is an Asian take on a Hollywood title (the Coen Brothers' first outing) and, coming from House Of Flying Daggers helmer Zhang Yimou (its full title is Zhang Yimou's Blood Simple), it bears a real hallmark of quality. Momentum's Clare Dundrow said: "It's a very unique re-make of the Coen Brothers classic from excellent pedigree. We're supporting with a targeted press campaign in selected press and a heavyweight online campaign with My Movies targeting mainstream sites as well as more dedicated genre sites and consumers who bought similar product."