NEWS
Utopai’s “Half Moon” Begins Filming; AI Company’s APAC Integration Kicks in Under Hyun Park
07 September 2026
“Half Moon”, the German-Korean feature that marks writer-director Hyo-joo Yang’s move from shorts to her first full-length film, started rolling cameras in Germany this month, just days after AI company Utopai Studios finished redrawing its Asia-Pacific org chart.
The new APAC operation folds Korea-Japan joint venture, Utopai East, into the parent company, and hands the keys to the newly unified region to Hyun Park, a media veteran with stints running CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon global division, co-running Warner Bros Korea, and co-founding U.S.-based Korean streaming platform DramaFever.
Park’s new title is president, Utopai Studios APAC.
“Half Moon” is the poster project for Utopai Studios’ effort to look less like an AI company and more like a studio with taste and respect for traditional filmmaking.
Yang’s directorial debut, backed by Germany’s In Good Company and Korea’s Paper Barn Studios, arrives with a Silver Bear-winner’s pedigree from her short “Broken Night”. Utopai insists the production will stay firmly filmmaker-led, with its in-house AI system PAI limited to “select visual elements.”
Given that Utopai also has a fully AI-generated “Journey to the West” series in the works with China’s Huace, “Half Moon” sits at the more traditional end of what the company means by “AI-assisted”.
The integration of the Korea/Japan-focused activity is a fast and tidy piece of consolidation.
Utopai East launched in November 2025 as a joint venture with Stock Farm Road, and acquired Hyun Park’s Seoul-based production house Alquimista Media (bringing 15 scripted projects with it) in February this year. Utopai East’s founding CEO, Kevin Chong, becomes Utopai Studios’ global COO in the new structure.
Utopai says the integration brings in a pipeline of more than 18 film and television projects from the Korea/Japan operation, with a total 25 titles in development/production. First titles from the wider slate go into production...
“Half Moon”, the German-Korean feature that marks writer-director Hyo-joo Yang’s move from shorts to her first full-length film, started rolling cameras in Germany this month, just days after AI company Utopai Studios finished redrawing its Asia-Pacific org chart.
The new APAC operation folds Korea-Japan joint venture, Utopai East, into the parent company, and hands the keys to the newly unified region to Hyun Park, a media veteran with stints running CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon global division, co-running Warner Bros Korea, and co-founding U.S.-based Korean streaming platform DramaFever.
Park’s new title is president, Utopai Studios APAC.
“Half Moon” is the poster project for Utopai Studios’ effort to look less like an AI company and more like a studio with taste and respect for traditional filmmaking.
Yang’s directorial debut, backed by Germany’s In Good Company and Korea’s Paper Barn Studios, arrives with a Silver Bear-winner’s pedigree from her short “Broken Night”. Utopai insists the production will stay firmly filmmaker-led, with its in-house AI system PAI limited to “select visual elements.”
Given that Utopai also has a fully AI-generated “Journey to the West” series in the works with China’s Huace, “Half Moon” sits at the more traditional end of what the company means by “AI-assisted”.
The integration of the Korea/Japan-focused activity is a fast and tidy piece of consolidation.
Utopai East launched in November 2025 as a joint venture with Stock Farm Road, and acquired Hyun Park’s Seoul-based production house Alquimista Media (bringing 15 scripted projects with it) in February this year. Utopai East’s founding CEO, Kevin Chong, becomes Utopai Studios’ global COO in the new structure.
Utopai says the integration brings in a pipeline of more than 18 film and television projects from the Korea/Japan operation, with a total 25 titles in development/production. First titles from the wider slate go into production this year, with releases pencilled in for 2027.
So far the APAC footprint over-indexes on Korea, which leads with “Half Moon” and “Bedford Park” – the Sundance-winning feature that kicked off Utopai’s Korea operation earlier this year.
The Japan contribution – live action and animation – remains vague at this stage and the rest of the region unmentioned.
Previous
Next
