Birch Tree Entertainment, Soft On Demand, Torin and Moob announced today that they have signed an overall deal to finance, produce and distribute a slate of martial arts action films, beginning with the sci-fi actioner Danger Dolls. Danger Dolls will debut at this year’s Marche du Film in Cannes, and is directed by Japanese fantasy and sci-fi movie veteran Shusuke Kaneko, creator of the highly-acclaimed 1990s Gamera series, the manga-inspired Death Note films and Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), which many consider to be the best contemporary entry in the entire Godzilla film series. It will go on to screen at film festivals in Europe and North America this summer with a US and Japanese release slated for September.

Danger Dolls follows a quartet of cute idol singers who moonlight as butt-kicking action heroines. When extraterrestrial invaders threaten the safety of the Earth after an earthquake unleashes them from an alternate dimension, the Danger Dolls become humanity’s only hope for survival. The team infiltrates the evil cult behind the invasion and must use their swords and their fists to smash the invading army. Starring popular karate heroine Rina Takeda (High Kick Girl, Dead Sushi) and new discovery Nana Seino (star of Sion Sono’s upcoming Tokyo Tribe), the film also features Rumi Hanai, Kayano and Noboru Kaneko (Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.). Director Kaneko began working as a filmmaker for Nikkatsu Studios in the mid-1980s and has directed over 40 features or TV series to date. Some of his additional works include the gender-bending sci-fi film Summer Vacation 1999, a segment in the Lovecraftian horror anthology Necronomicon: Book of the Dead, the science fiction drama Crossfire, ninja film Azumi 2 and several episodes in the Ultraman Max television series.

Speaking about the co-production deal, President and CEO of Birch Tree Entertainment Art Birzneck stated, “I believe that Japan is emerging as the next player in the international action film marketplace and having a strong financial partner like Soft On Demand together with experienced producers in Torin and Moob, make us well positioned to lead the charge.”

“Soft On Demand, Torin and Moob are happy to be working with Birch Tree Entertainment on these exciting new action projects,” said Naoki Kubo, President of Torin. “We felt Birch Tree was the right strategic partner due to their experience and connections in the international action film marketplace. Our production team headed by myself and Toshiharu Ozawa, President of Moob, will work closely with Art to ensure that we provide the international audience with high quality action films.”

The companies are in development on several martial arts action films with the next film to begin production in Japan in Q4 2014 and expanding to international locations in 2015.