ATF: Singapore’s Taipan Strikes Slate Deal With China’s Hua Cheng

Singapore’s Taipan Films is entering the China market with a $15 million (RMB 100 million) slate deal with the Beijing Hua Cheng Media Group. The agreement will see the production of a slate of five projects over the next three years.

The deal was announced at the Singapore Asia TV Forum and Market, part of the Singapore Media Festival.

The companies will co-fund and co-produce. Hua Cheng will be responsible for China distribution.

First up will be two projects by Singaporean J.D. Chua, who spent several years working on action, stunts and visual effects in Hollywood and was mentored by Michael Mann. “Circle Line”, an Asian urban themed subway creature film is due to shoot in the first quarter of 2018 while action road movie “The Rocks of Hua Lamphong,” which was featured in this year’s Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum, will follow.

“It is an exciting time to be back in Asia making movies,” said Chua. “I am thankful to be given not just one, but two opportunities to make narrative films, where I can put to good use my experience in Hollywood action sequences and genre filmmaking into these projects.”

Taipan’s Tang Chi Sim said: “We consider this a small step a small step into a vast ocean of opportunity. The recent successes like ‘Wolf Warriors II’ and even Tencent Literature’s IPO demonstrate how powerful IP has become in the Chinese market. (It is a) growing but complex market.”

Hua Cheng’s Lawrence Zhang said: “Taipan Films has a slate of strong content that we believe will work well for the Chinese market.” Also on the slate is a coming of age cyber security hacker film “The Red Butterfly”.

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