A new company has been set up to distribute and market works from Cathay-Keris Films' Chinese and Malay libraries, with an eye to help produce theatrical and television remakes of the classic films.

The Singapore-based I.E. Entertainment was started by sisters Indra and Erlina Suharjono, who have decades of experience in the film industry here and overseas.

Ms Indra Suharjono, 57, a Singaporean, tells The Straits Times there is great remake potential in the archive of Cathay-Keris works, consisting of 166 Chinese titles and 91 Malay titles, mostly made in the 1950s and 1960s.

More should be done to let producers across Asia and elsewhere know that these older films are available to adapt and to ease the process of obtaining rights, she says.

"There are great stories. They can be made contemporary, as movies and television series," she adds.

The titles are owned by Cathay Organisation and are staples in retrospective film festivals looking at the glory days of film production in Singapore, when Cathay-Keris Studio in East Coast Road made popular Malay-language films, including the Pontianak series of horror films.

An associated studio in Hong Kong made films for Mandarin-speaking audiences.

The Suharjono sisters see remake potential in titles such as the two-part romantic epic Sun, Moon And Star (both released in 1961) and culture-clash comedy trilogy The Greatest Civil War On Earth (1961 to 1964).

"We are talking to producers in South Korea about adapting the Chinese titles and are also speaking with producers in Indonesia about the Malay titles," she says.