Sony plans US$100m movie push
biz.scmp.com
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
REUTERS in Beijing
Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony plans to spend about US$100 million to make movies in China over the next three years, according to a company spokeswoman.
Sony chief executive Nobuyuki Idei had announced the plans during a visit to Beijing on Monday, said Li Xi, a spokeswoman at the company's office there.
"In the next three years, Sony will invest about US$100 million in the Chinese movie industry," Ms Li said. "That will be mainly in production."
The Shanghai Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, quoted Mr Idei as saying Sony would shoot an average of five movies a year in China.
Beijing still exerts tight control over the film and music industries, but has gradually opened the sector's doors to foreign products and investment dollars.
Earlier this year, Sony's Hong Kong-based Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia released Big Shot's Funeral , starring actor Donald Sutherland.
Shot in China, the film earned nearly US$4.3 million in less than a month - a pittance compared to Hollywood blockbusters but enough to set a Chinese box-office record for a domestically produced film.
Columbia Pictures Asia also helped produce Oscar-winning martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, by Taiwanese director Ang Lee.
Other projects this year include The Missing Gun , with Chinese star Jiang Wen, and Warriors of Heaven And Earth, also with Jiang. |
