Phoenix Waters Prods. has unveiled “K-Pop Out of Time,” a cross-border musical feature uniting the U.K., Hong Kong and Korea, with filming set to begin later this year.

Produced by Phoenix Waters alongside TE Creatives, the project originated from a concept by Bizhan Tong and Everett Jenkins. The film centers on a contemporary K-pop idol who, after being accused of plagiarism, is transported back to 1980s Hong Kong, where he falls in love with the original songwriter of the song that upended his career. Music serves as both storytelling engine and cultural connective tissue, drawing on the golden age of Cantopop alongside the global reach of modern K-pop.

Tong, who is also writing and directing, previously helmed “Tape,” which screened at the Raindance and Vancouver Intl. Film Festivals and was recently announced as part of the selection of the Miami Film Festival. He produces alongside Charlie Wong (“Warriors of Future,” “Zero to Hero”) and Jenkins.

Executive producers are Wonil Cha of Global Content Media Group GPVC, a Seoul-based company specializing in K-pop content production, global media distribution and IP monetization, and Rancho Lee of Simsan Ventures, a U.K.-and-Dubai-based venture capital firm focused on cross-border Asian media and technology investments.

Composer Christopher Lai, whose credits include “Back to the Past,” a best original score nominee at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and Andrew Lau’s “The Dumpling Queen,” a best original score nominee at the Golden Rooster Awards, will craft the film’s soundscape spanning both musical eras. Costume and makeup designer Karen Yip, a multiple Hong Kong Film Awards winner and Golden Horse nominee known for “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In,” “Anita,” “Cold War” and “Night King,” will oversee the visual styling.

Casting is underway for both the male K-pop lead and the Hong Kong female lead, with open auditions planned in Hong Kong and Korea in the coming months.

Beyond its theatrical release, the producers plan to extend “K-Pop Out of Time” into live concert events, looking to build a broader entertainment franchise around the film’s original music and its appeal across generations.

The project is part of Phoenix Waters’ broader slate strategy aimed at developing commercially driven IP across Asia with international reach. The company has also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean studio MOFAC, the production company behind “The King of Kings,” which became both the highest-grossing Korean-produced film in U.S. box office history and the highest-grossing faith-based animated film globally. The deal aims to deepen ties between the Hong Kong, Korean and British screen industries on both the creative and financing fronts.

“K-pop is the most globally dominant music force of this generation, while Cantopop defined an era of Hong Kong’s cultural identity,” said Tong. “This film brings those two worlds together in a way that feels emotional, nostalgic and commercially exciting. It’s about authorship, cultural legacy, and how music transcends time and borders.”

Jenkins, managing director of TE Creatives, described the project as an expression of the company’s “glocal” storytelling philosophy. “Cantopop itself began as a cross-cultural experiment,” he said, noting that the film brings together two landmark Asian pop movements separated by four decades yet connected through shared creative DNA.

Cha called music a universal language that defies the boundaries of time and geography, while Lee framed the project as a pivotal pre-production step toward an upcoming global K-Asia media fund, anticipating that it will leverage the impact of K-content to build long-term media synergies across Korea, Hong Kong and the global market.

Producer Wong noted the historical arc the film seeks to capture. “Before the turn of the millennium, Cantopop was the dominant sound across Asia. In the decades that followed, K-pop reshaped the global music landscape,” he said. “Bringing these two cultural forces together in one film feels both timely and exciting.”

Further casting and partnership announcements are expected in the coming months. The project was unveiled at the Hong Kong FilMart.