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INTERNATIONAL IP DEVELOPMENT

Stories travel. Relevance is rebuilt.

Picture Selling Company discovers underexposed film and television IP and develops culturally grounded, buyer-ready adaptations for specific Asian markets.

From rights and market fit to local development, packaging, and the right buyer conversation.

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OUR THESIS

A compelling story may be universal. The world around it is not.

Translated dialogue, renamed characters, and a new location do not create a local project. We preserve the dramatic engine of an original work, then rebuild the institutions, relationships, status systems, and genre rhythms around it.

The result should feel made for its new audience—not imported into it.

WHAT WE DO

We turn overlooked material into a credible development opportunity.

Our work sits between discovery and production: selecting the right material, establishing a viable rights path, testing its destination market, and developing the package a local partner can evaluate.

  1. 01

    Source beyond the obvious

    We look for distinctive scripts and underlying IP in creative markets that international buyers rarely see through their usual channels.

  2. 02

    Establish the rights path

    Before meaningful development or outreach, we clarify ownership and secure the permissions needed to explore a specific adaptation.

  3. 03

    Test the market fit

    We assess dramatic portability, production reality, and buyer relevance before committing to expensive translation or redevelopment.

  4. 04

    Develop locally

    With market-specific creative partners, we rebuild the story’s social world and shape the adaptation concept, treatment, and creative direction.

  5. 05

    Package for the room

    We bring story, rights status, adaptation logic, production context, and essential creative attachments into a package buyers can act on.

FOR PRODUCERS, STUDIOS & BUYERS

A curated pipeline, not an open catalogue.

We present a small number of projects selected against a clear market thesis. Each opportunity is framed around the dramatic engine, rights position, local adaptation logic, production scale, and the next practical development step.

  • Distinctive IP beyond the usual international pipeline
  • Clear provenance and rights-status reporting
  • Market-specific adaptation rationale
  • Development materials matched to the project’s stage
  • Targeted conversations instead of mass submissions
Discuss Your Current Mandate

Selected projects are shared privately with relevant industry partners.

FOR WRITERS & RIGHTS HOLDERS

A new market without pretending the path is simple.

We create a disciplined route into markets that are difficult to reach alone. We do not promise production. We evaluate the fit, define a project-specific rights structure, and develop the material only where there is a credible local path.

  • Project-specific, time-limited agreements
  • Clear expectations, rights, and credit principles
  • Respect for the original dramatic core
  • Local development with appropriate creative partners
  • No full screenplay required before an invitation
Request Submission Guidelines

Please do not email or upload a full screenplay unless we have invited you to do so.

HOW IT WORKS

Development happens in stages. Every stage has to earn the next.

We increase the level of investment only as rights clarity, creative fit, and real market signal improve.

  1. 01

    Discover

    We source scripts and underlying IP according to a defined acquisition mandate—not simply because a project is available.

    Premise + source material

  2. 02

    Evaluate

    We assess the dramatic engine, commercial hook, adaptability, production feasibility, and the initial rights position.

    Creative and market assessment

  3. 03

    Test

    A compact English package and adaptation hypothesis are used to gather focused feedback from trusted contacts in the destination market.

    Market signal

  4. 04

    Develop

    Once the path is credible, we secure the appropriate rights and work with local creative partners on the adaptation memo, treatment, deck, and attachments.

    Localized development package

  5. 05

    Place

    We bring the project into targeted conversations with producers, studios, platforms, financiers, and co-production partners for whom it is relevant.

    Buyer or co-development conversation

Not every project moves through every stage. A clear “no” is part of a disciplined development process.

OUR ADAPTATION PRINCIPLE

Localization starts where translation ends.

We do not simply change names and move the plot. We identify what must remain for the story to work, then rebuild what must change for the story to belong.

PRESERVE

  • Central desire
  • Moral dilemma
  • Dramatic engine
  • Emotional consequence

REBUILD

  • Setting and institutions
  • Family and hierarchy
  • Class, work, and education
  • Shame, status, and obligation
  • Gender and generational codes
  • Genre rhythm and audience expectation

The destination market is not a backdrop. It becomes part of the story’s machinery.

CURRENT MANDATE

What we are looking for now.

Our mandate is intentionally narrow. We are interested in projects with a clear dramatic engine and the ability to survive a change of culture, institution, and setting.

FORMATS

  • Feature films
  • Limited series

GENRES

  • Thriller
  • Crime
  • Psychological drama
  • Horror
  • Contained mystery
  • Elevated genre

WHAT MATTERS

  • A premise that can be explained clearly
  • An emotional engine driven by character
  • Conflict that can be meaningfully recontextualized
  • A realistic production path
  • Rights that can be clearly controlled

We do not currently review unsolicited full screenplays. Rights holders may request our submission guidelines below.

Request Submission Guidelines

HOW WE OPERATE

Selectivity is part of the work.

  1. 01

    Rights before outreach

    Interest is not useful if nobody can establish who controls the opportunity.

  2. 02

    Evidence before expansion

    We test a premise and its market fit before paying for a full redevelopment process.

  3. 03

    Local authorship before cosmetic localization

    A destination market requires creative judgment from people who understand how stories work inside it.

  4. 04

    Depth before volume

    A small, coherent slate is more useful than a large catalogue of unrelated material.

  5. 05

    Clarity with creators

    We define the stage, the rights, the risks, and what we can—and cannot—promise.

PROJECTS

Our slate is shared in context.

Projects are often confidential, rights-sensitive, or still being shaped for a destination market. We therefore do not publish an open catalogue. Qualified producers, studios, platforms, financiers, and co-production partners can request a private introduction to relevant material.

Tell Us What You Are Looking For

Private. Curated. Market-specific.

ABOUT PICTURE SELLING COMPANY

Built between source markets and destination markets.

Picture Selling Company operates at the intersection of IP sourcing, rights-aware development, and cross-cultural adaptation. We look for stories with a strong dramatic engine, then build a practical path toward a specific local market.

Our role is to protect the value of the source, reduce development uncertainty, and create the materials and relationships a local production partner needs to move the project forward.

We assemble project-specific teams as the work demands—bringing original creators together with local writers, producers, readers, legal counsel, and market advisors at the appropriate stage.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The practical questions.

Not by general email. Rights holders may request our current submission guidelines and, if the project fits our mandate, we will explain the next step. Please do not send a full screenplay unless invited.

Not necessarily. The structure depends on the project, territory, development stage, and rights required. It may involve a time-limited option, representation authority, or another project-specific agreement.

No. We can evaluate, develop, package, and introduce a project responsibly, but acquisition, financing, and production decisions remain with the relevant partners.

We work market by market rather than treating Asia as a single audience. The destination is selected according to the project, its cultural fit, and the local development path.

The materials depend on the stage, but may include a logline, synopsis, rights-status summary, adaptation rationale, treatment, pitch deck, budget range, and relevant creative attachments.

Yes. Writers, producers, readers, consultants, distributors, and development professionals can introduce their expertise and market through the contact form.

START A CONVERSATION

Begin with the right context.

Tell us who you are and what you are bringing to the conversation. We will route your message to the appropriate next step.

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