Hoshi Studios, East-West Manga Incubator, Launched by Through the Lens Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)

Through the Lens Entertainment, the East-West film studio that made a splash at Cannes last year, is expanding into manga.

It has launched Hoshi Studios, a manga development and publishing startup with outposts in Singapore and Japan. The outfit will create teams combining western film and TV talent with established Japanese manga artists to create books and other comic-book properties. These will be published at the rate of four to five per year with the most successful ones going on to be adapted as anime (TV series) or films.

The new studio is helped by a distribution deal with Shogakukan Asia, the Southeast Asian subsidiary of the Japanese publishing giant Shogakukan, which is behind the Pokémon book series and has bestselling titles including “Komi Can’t Communicate” and “Frieren.”

“We are always looking to create alternative ways to build new IP,” company founder Aditya Chand told Variety. “Here, the idea is to have manga creators team up with the directors, first create an IP and later have those directors take the property a step further.”

The first project to be launched this way is “Muri,” a sci-fi action-adventure tale about a young, female android who needs to take refuge from forces threatening her family. Talent attachments were not disclosed.

“Anime has been rising in popularity for years now, and we have seen that more and more fans are connecting with the studios behind their favorite comics, shows and films. This new creative partnership will enable our artistic studios to go to market with exciting newly created content on multiple mediums to those growing audiences. In short, the creation of Hoshi Studios unlocks the potential for multicultural creative talent to fully submerge themselves in to the Anime and new Manga worlds. Going out intentionally to create a new Manga portfolio – in an equitable way with artists, is the start of something truly exciting and groundbreaking,” the company said in a statement.

“We have the expertise to distribute our licensed titles from HQ as a publisher in this region. Through our working connections with the bookshops, we are happy to sell Hoshi-project creations to the right audiences, on the right medium globally. We are looking forward to strengthen our partnership even more in the future,” said MD of Shogakukan Asia, Rony Neo.

Through the Lens, is an associate producer on “Eephus,” the comedy drama by Carson Lund that debuts this week in the Cannes Film Festival’s sidebar section Directors’ Fortnight.

The company’s other projects include “The Incident Report” with Britt Lower (“Severance”) directed by Naomi Jaye and executive produced by Charlie Kaufman; “Lefthanded Girl,” a Taiwanese feature film written directed by Shih Ching Shou (“Tangerine”) and produced by Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”), that is now in post-production; and “Skysong,” a south-Asian fairytale developed as a comic book and feature film with Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and her company Freebird Films.

Set for an August start of production in Thailand is the Deepa Mehta-directed serial killer film “Troilokya.”

Through the Lens was launched in 2021 and hit its stride last year. Former Village Roadshow International chairman and CEO Bruce Berman was set up as the new company’s president, co-chairman and board member. After a one-year contract, Berman is now stepping into an advisory role. Chand says that other senior appointments will be announced in the coming months.