Curtain call for Thailand as Technicolor invests in region
Hollywood has just written its name across Thailand in Technicolor. At least that's what local film industry pundits are saying after the takeover of Cinecolor, Southeast Asia's biggest film processing company, by the US giant Technicolor Entertainment Services.
The takeover was revealed a fortnight ago by Technicolor's parent company, French electronics conglomerate Thomson SA. Many in Thailand's film industry believe it is a sign of things to come as the kingdom aims to position itself as Asia's premiere one-stop centre for international filmmaking.
'People are starting to wake up to the fact that the business isn't just about Hollywood any more,' says Ric Lawes, chief executive of Location Thailand, which offers logistical and location advice to visiting moviemakers, as well as publishing a guide to film industry services offered in Thailand.
'The bottom line is that a lot of business was starting to move through Cinecolor - for example, they recently did something like 860 prints of The Lord Of The Rings series for New Line Cinema. That's a lot of film to process in anyone's language. Hollywood has been sniffing around here for a while, and this may not be the last big deal we see.'
Technicolor is one of the most recognisable brands in Hollywood, and according to a Thomson SA spokesman, the latest deal positions the company to enter Asia's post-production and film-copying market as the dominant player. The spokesman added that the Australian-Asian market would become one of the chief growth areas for post-production and film laboratory services in the next decade.
The purchase follows Cinecolor's comprehensive upgrade to its plant near the capital's Don Muang airport. More than 100 million baht (HK$19.4 million) was spent upgrading equipment and becoming fully digitalised, as well as increasing film-processing capacity to 1.2 million feet of film per day.
In recent years, Cinecolor had become respected globally for its quality control and high standards. It became a printer for most of the major Hollywood studios and many independent American producers, as well as for filmmakers across Asia and in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Middle East.
