Hong Kong's famous Shaw Brothers studio to be revived as TVB goes to the movies
Broadcaster is in talks with major Hollywood studios to develop global Chinese-language films under revived Shaw Brothers brand
Free-to-air television giant TVB is reviving the Shaw Brothers brand to venture into the film business and develop Chinese-language titles with Hollywood for global distribution.
TVB's group chief executive Mark Lee Po-on told the that the company aimed to produce films on the scale of and it had been in talks with major studios in Hollywood.
"We are not just about Hong Kong and mainland China films. The collaboration will be east and west," Lee said yesterday. "We are talking to major Hollywood studios."
Lee declined to reveal details of projects under development or investment plans, but said announcements would be made in about six months.
TVB's film ambitions emerged after six years of trial. In 2009, the company entered into a joint venture agreement with Shaw Brothers to produce films, with a total capital contribution capped at HK$20 million.
The venture's latest success was Wong Jing's star-studded action comedy , which topped the mainland's Lunar New Year box office and has grossed more than HK$1 billion worldwide. Romantic drama , developed from a popular TVB series of the same name, raked in more than HK$16 million in the box office at Lunar New Year.
"This proves our plan worked. Now we want to make film a part of our core business," Lee said.
Lee said that instead of developing a new brand, Mona Fong, TVB's non-executive director and widow of the late Sir Run Run Shaw - a founder of TVB and the Shaw Brothers studio - allowed TVB to use the Shaw Brothers brand to form Shaw Brothers Pictures, a fully owned subsidiary of TVB, to spearhead TVB's film ambition.
"Shaw Brothers is a globally known brand that guarantees quality," Lee said. "TVB has all the qualities and resources to develop a film business."
Virginia Lok Yee-ling, controller of TVB's production resources division and director of Shaw Brothers Pictures, said seven projects were being developed.
She said each project had a minimum investment of HK$30 million to HK$50 million, but they had not set a target for the number of productions per year.
"The stories always come first," said Lok. "We hope to find Hong Kong stories that are positive and touching. We also want to give more exposure to our TVB talents, particularly our creative talents and crew members."
Projects include film versions of popular TVB drama series, although Lok said it would not be a dominant trend.
"But it's possible to develop TV series as an extension to a film," she said.
Meanwhile, TVB has acquired 2,000 hours of kung fu dramas from the beleaguered ATV for HK$10 million on top of 750 black-and-white films from the ATV archive at a similar price.
Lee said while the old films, together with some 800 black-and-white films in the TVB library, would be reserved for a channel dedicated to old classics, the kung fu dramas from ATV would be distributed overseas.
