|
Huayi Brothers, which has a market value of 34 billion yuan
($5.2 billion) counts among its investors high-profile Chinese
firms such as Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd, Tencent Holdings Ltd
and state-backed financial institutions Ping An and CITIC.
The new unit's chief executive will be Joe Aguilar, a former
producer at both DreamWorks Animation SKG and Twentieth Century
Fox Film Corporation, Huayi said in a statement to the Shenzhen
stock exchange.
Aguilar helped DreamWorks to establish its India division, which
has produced animations including Madagascar 3 and How to Train
Your Dragon, Huayi said. The company's art director will be
Markus Manninen, who was the visual effects supervisor of movies
such as Kung Fu Panda 3.
The company did not provide investment details.
"The establishment of an animation company signifies that the
company will enter the animated movie industry with world class
production skills," Huayi said in the statement.
Animation has been a key focus in Chinese companies' drive to
develop the country's film industry. One such effort is Oriental
DreamWorks, set up as a joint venture between DreamWorks
Animation SKG, China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and
Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd.
In a sign of success, Oriental DreamWorks co-produced the
$330-million Kung Fu Panda 3 with U.S.-based DreamWorks, which
topped U.S. box offices earlier this year.
China is posing a steep challenge to the North American film
market - still the world's largest - but where box office growth
has stalled.
Chinese authorities said this month they would look into the
potential issue of faked ticket sales, underlining teething
issues still facing the fast-growing market as it increasingly
attracts local and overseas investment.
Shares of Huayi, which has produced more than 100 films in the
past 21 years, closed up 4.2 percent on Monday.
($1 = 6.4943 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting By Stella Tsang, Teenie Ho, Paul Carsten and Clare
Baldwin, Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Tom Hogue)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
|
