The Chinese government-owned Shanghai Media Group has said that the recent multi-year deal with Walt Disney Studios will help it to learn more about making superior quality movies.
According to a report in the Hollywood Reporter, the market for Chinese films is flourishing and the box office collections were to the tune of $3.6 billion last year. It is expected that this figure will reach $4.6 billion this year. Nevertheless, there is a need for more professionalism.
While the deal between SMG and Disney was signed last weekend, Huayi Bros of China confirmed that it was contemplating to pump in $150 million into Studio 8 of Jeff Robinov, a former Warner Bros chief, to produce a series of films.
SMG director, corporate strategy and business development, Zhou Yuan told Hollywood Reporter, "We are targeting action, adventure and fantasy genre films development and production. The films will be English-language and will be live-action."
Zhou added, "The films are aimed at the global market with a special focus on the China market, organic Chinese stories with local elements."
According to Zhou, the deal with Disney involved many more things than just a film project. "The cooperation with Disney will provide us the opportunity to learn systematically from the most competitive content providers around, and get directly involved in the production of Hollywood films," said Zhou.
SMG is the second largest cinema unit of any media group in China and has a record of several successfully collaborations with overseas partners. Last year, it collaborated to import Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone starrer 'Escape Plan', which grossed $1 million at the box office in China. Thus far, SMG has earned more than $300 million from film distribution business.
As per the agreement, Disney Studios will help its Chinese counterpart with the services of writers and screenwriters from the United States to jointly develop movie projects that will be essentially Disney incorporating some 'Chinese elements.'
Zhou told the website, "Our content development team will sit down with creative team from Disney to look for the right film themes, communicate with Hollywood scriptwriters, and finish the development of the script by continuous mutual study. Only in this way can our creative development be improved."
