Josie Ho’s 852 Films Launches Film Slate, Talent Management Arm
852 Films, the boutique film production company headed by gaming industry scion Josie Ho, has established a talent management company to handle the on screen talent launched by its movies. Simultaneously, 852 Films is readying a slate of new movies headed by the Mike Figgis-directed thriller “Mother Tongue”.
Now in post-production, “Mother Tongue” is aiming for an autumn festival launch. It stars Ho, Elaine Jin and the late Julian Sands in a tale about a high-profile actress whose secret quest to find her long-lost daughter nearly wrecks her marriage. Figgis was director of 1995 film “Leaving Las Vegas” which won an Oscar for Nicolas Cage. The screenplay of “Mother Tongue” is by Bruce Wagner
First to be represented by 852 Films Limited Artist Management Service is Iman (aka Iman Taheri), an Iranian-born former doctor with a social media following as a poet.
While Iman does not appear in “Mother Tongue” he features prominently across the rest of 852 Films’ current slate.
This includes “The Mage,” a spooky horror film directed by veteran Hong Kong-Thailand filmmaker Danny Pang, which is also in post-production.
At an event on the first day of FilMart, 852 revealed three other projects co-starring Ho and Iman. These include “Bathory,” to be directed by Matthew David Wilder; “My Funny Valentine,” directed by Hong Kong’s Bjarne Wong; and “Macau Redux” by Jordan Gertner. All four directors were present at the FilMart event. So too was Peter Chan, the executive who heads the new talent management unit.
Ho is the daughter of Stanley Ho, billionaire pioneer of the Macau casino industry, who died in 2020.
“I was working with so many unfortunate people who had nothing that I realised I have good karma. I wanted to take this opportunity [in acting] and earn my luck,” said Iman.