Cliffhanger: Filmmakers unsure if deal with Hollywood studio Warner Bros will prove the magic pill to revive Hong Kong's movie industry
Industry figures fear local productions in city may fall by wayside despite big investment amid plan to make Chinese-language movies on a global scale
Hong Kong filmmaker Saville Chan Sum-yiu is busy preparing for next month's launch of She Remembers, He Forgets, a drama about indulging in past glory that he is co-producing. But he is also mulling other ideas.
"After She Remembers, He Forgets, I want to develop more film projects in Hong Kong. I hope to unite the city's filmmakers and offer opportunities to young talent," says Chan, producer and scriptwriter of the acclaimed 2011 feature The Way We Dance.
"Hong Kong needs more projects."
Someone like Chan should therefore be happy to hear about the recent headline-grabbing news that Hollywood giant Warner Bros Entertainment plans to team up with China Media Capital (CMC) to form Hong Kong-based joint venture Flagship Entertainment Group, which aims to produce Chinese language films on a global scale.
But he has qualms about its vision. "The plan can be beneficial to local film distribution, marketing and financing, but I doubt if it will benefit our film productions," says Chan, who plans to produce films that articulate Hong Kong stories on budgets ranging between HK$20 million and HK$30 million - not films on a so-called global scale.
"If [Flagship Entertainment Group] targets a global scale, I doubt that many Hong Kong talents can be utilised," he says.