Big shots aim for $290 million

By Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-20 14:02

Costing about 150 million yuan ($22 million), the film is among the 15 productions Cinema Popular will release over three years.

"Not all films need a huge budget like Red Cliff," Chan says, referring to John Woo's latest production that carries a $80 million price tag.

"The huge investment comes from an appetite for overseas audiences, but now the Chinese market is itself very big."

Chan reveals that at least onethird of the 15 films will be mid-sized productions costing around 30 million yuan ($4.4 million), and another third will have bigger budgets, such as Dark October.

Chan, who has won praise from critics and moviegoers alike, will direct only one or two films in the next three years, and spend most of the time selecting scripts and cooperating with young potential directors.

Yu Dong, president of Polybona, the country's largest private distributor, says that he expects a box office collection of 2 billion yuan ($290 million) from the 15 productions.

Since the signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2003, co-productions with the mainland have helped revive the flagging Hong Kong film industry.

"The mainland box office is growing," Chan says. "What we should do is to follow the trend and grow with it, not skirt it."

Mainland box office earnings reached 4.34 billion yuan ($680 million) in 2008, representing a 30 percent increase over the previous year. The top three moneymakers were all joint productions between the mainland and Hong Kong. They did not fall within the 20 imported films quota aimed at protecting the domestic film industry.

Chan and Huang got to know each other in 1998 at the Berlin Film Festival. The two cooperated in Chan's last work, Warlords. This war epic directed by Chan and produced by Huang, raked in more than 200 million yuan in 2007, and won 12 nominations and the best picture and best director awards in the Golden Horse Awards, known as Taiwan's Oscar.

Huang was among the first Chinese filmmakers to work with his counterparts from Hong Kong and other countries. His foreign collaborations include Kill Bill, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and The Kite Runner.

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