China’s Tencent Pictures teams up with Turner Asia-Pacific to develop Tuzki animated movie
Deal is part of a busy slate of 21 film and television projects currently under development by Tencent’s film production arm
Tencent Holdings, one of Asia’s most valuable companies, is revving up its motion picture business under a deal with Turner Asia-Pacific to develop a combined 3D animated and live action movie based on Tuzki, a popular cartoon rabbit emoticon used on WeChat.
The Chinese internet giant’s film production arm, Shanghai Tencent Pictures Culture Media (Tencent Pictures), said on Monday that the movie will have a 2017 project start date and see a wide release on the mainland in 2018.
“This announcement is a huge milestone as we look to grow the Tuzki franchise, and reinforces Turner’s commitment to its growing business in China,” Clément Schwebig, Turner Asia-Pacific’s senior vice-president of business development, said in a statement.
Financial terms of the co-production deal were not disclosed. Turner Asia-Pacific is a unit of New York-based media conglomerate Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting System.
According to Tencent Pictures, the Tuzki movie is part of a slate of 21 film and television projects that it plans to develop from this year.
Tencent Pictures is a separate entity from Shanghai-based online drama producer Penguin Pictures and Hong Kong-listed Huayi Tencent Entertainment Company, which was formed earlier this year by Shenzhen-traded film studio Huayi Brothers Media Corp, Tencent and Yunfeng Capital.
Private equity firm Yunfeng Capital was co-founded by Alibaba Group executive chairman Jack Ma Yun. New York-listed Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.