Joy Hopwood frames Her Last Laugh as a heartfelt celebration of cultural diversity, calling it her sixth Asian Australian story and emphasizing the cast and crew poured their hearts into the film.
Insiders at Busan are whispering that the real tea isn't just the XO Kitty and Mortal Kombat II crossover β it's that Cappu Films' entire market lineup is a genre blender, from Tony Leung prestige to Vanilla Ice and Chuck Norris in a movie called Zombie Plane. Someone in that sales room has zero chill.
1) Hong Kong-based Cappu Films secured international sales rights (beyond ANZ) as of October 2026 for Busan's Asian Contents & Film Market. 2) Hopwood confirmed Australian theatrical release in November 2026, with streaming platform distribution as the stated goal. 3) The film's plot: sisters must turn a profit within 12 months or lose the agency to an estranged uncle.
A scrappy Aussie dramedy with Netflix-adjacent star power is shaking hands with buyers in Busan, and honestly, the Vanilla Ice and Chuck Norris side of this market deal might be the bigger story.
Let's get one thing straight: the Busan International Film Festival's Asian Contents & Film Market just got a lot more interesting, and not just because Tony Leung Chiu-wai is in the building. Hong Kong-based sales outfit Cappu Films has officially taken on international distribution rights β everything beyond Australia and New Zealand β for "Her Last Laugh," the new Australian dramedy written, directed, and produced by Joy Hopwood. The finished film is being introduced to buyers right now at Busan, and the cast list alone has Hollywood adjacent types doing double takes.
We're talking Peter Thurnwald from Netflix's "XO, Kitty" and Ana Thu Nguyen from "Mortal Kombat II," rounding out a supporting cast that includes Tiana Hogben, Kya Stewart, Lyanna Kea, Tony Goh, and Australia's legendary John Waters. That's a lineup that shouldn't work on paper and yet somehow absolutely does. The plot?
Oh, the plot is delicious drama bait. Willow and Annika Lim are Chinese Australian sisters who inherit their late mother's casting agency with one brutal condition: turn a profit inside 12 months, or the whole operation passes to their estranged uncle. Clients are walking out.
A competitor is sniffing around the agency's reputation. Willow, a former teen star reduced to casting assistant, is carrying the entire operation on her back while Annika shelves her own life plans to help. Add a budding romance and a set of family diaries the sisters dig up, and you've got a recipe for tears, laughter, and at least one very dramatic kitchen confrontation.
Janice Woo of Cappu Films said the story centers on "two sisters finding their own way while preserving their mother's legacy," which is PR-speak for "this will make you ugly cry in a theater." And here's where the tea-rex in me gets genuinely excited: this is Hopwood's sixth Asian Australian story. Her back catalog includes "It's Our Time," "The Gift That Gives," "Get a Life Alright," "Rhapsody of Love," and "The Script of Life." She's not dabbling.
She's building a body of work, and she's doing it through her own Joy House Productions banner. "As an independent Australian filmmaker, I believe it is important to share culturally diverse stories that resonate across borders," Hopwood said, adding that she hopes audiences worldwide will connect with the film's "humor, heart and celebration of cultural diversity." Janice Woo of Cappu Films echoed the sentiment, telling Variety the team is "excited" to introduce the film to buyers in Busan and reach audiences internationally.
Available rights will be confirmed on a per-territory basis. But here's the part that has me genuinely cackling: Cappu's Busan sales lineup isn't just "Her Last Laugh." The company is also shopping "Fox Hunt" toplined by Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Shan Jiang's Tribeca selection "Ephemera," a nine-episode WWII spy series called "Operation Doolittle," Erica Xia-Hou's Slamdance pick "Banr," martial arts film "Lion Fist," and β I cannot stress this enough β "Zombie Plane," an action comedy starring Vanilla Ice, Sophie Monk, AND Chuck Norris.
Yes. All three. In the same movie.
At the same film market. The contrast between Hopwood's tender family dramedy and a Vanilla Ice zombie actioner sitting in the same sales booth is the kind of beautiful chaos that makes film markets worth covering. "Her Last Laugh" hits Australian theaters in November 2026, and after that, it's streaming platforms worldwide.
Watch this space, folks. The tea is hot and the plane is full of zombies.
