STAR CHINESE MOVIES PARTNERS WITH EMPEROR MOTION PICTURES TO “GO LOCAL” IN SUPPORT OF HONG KONG FILM PRODUCTION
Go Local! Initiative to launch with five original productions produced by Chapman To
Hong Kong, 19 March, 2013 – Star Chinese Movies (SCM) announced its partnership with Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP) to kick off a new initiative called “Go Local!” in support of the Hong Kong film industry. Witnessing the growing demand for local content, this initiative aims to support and nurture Hong Kong directors, actors, actresses, talents in the field of film production and create stories that are relevant to the local audience.
To kick start the “Go Local!” initiative, SCM and EMP will team up with local actor / producer Chapman To Man-chak to create five local movies. Both parties will work closely together with Chapman To to groom up-and-coming talent and provide financial support and resources to co-produce these projects. EMP will handle the global distribution rights of the five films produced by Chapman To, while SCM will oversee the worldwide TV and new media rights. Through this initiative, SCM and EMP hope to provide sufficient resources and financial support for people in the movie field from Greater China. They hope to bring more high quality local movies for audiences in Hong Kong and beyond.
“SCM is one of FOX International Channels’ leading entertainment channels and the number one Chinese language pay-TV channel in Asia. SCM’s original production initiatives are part of FOX International Channels’ larger network-wide objectives. We aim to provide local viewers, affiliates like Now TV and ad partners with more value through exclusive content,” said Ward L. Platt, President, FOX International Channels – Asia Pacific & Middle East. “In addition to our very successful and productive licensing arrangement established with EMP, we are delighted to deepen our relationship with them through this co-production initiative. The “Go Local” initiative aims to build up premium entertainment content that will not only bring value to our audience, but also benefits the development of the local film industry. We are excited to kick off this initiative in Hong Kong and look forward to expanding it to other markets”
“EMP is delighted to partner with SCM on this very meaningful and rewarding initiative. I am a believer of local production and using home-grown talent to fuel our industry’s development in Hong Kong. There are a lot of bright talent in the Hong Kong movie industry with great ideas and together with SCM, we wish to help bring these great ideas to life on the big screen,” said Albert Lee, Chief Executive Officer, EMP said.
Producer Chapman To added, “I’m very lucky and excited about the opportunity to team up with the
two leading companies in the media and entertainment industry, SCM and EMP, to create stories that local viewers can relate to and be proud to call their own.”
In the coming year, FOX International Channels (FIC) will take SCM’s leading position beyond Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Asian markets where it already has a strong presence. The SCM brand will grow from being the leader in Asia and become a major player in the global arena, especially in markets where there is increasing demand for premium Chinese-language entertainment content including Korea, North America, Europe, Australia and the Middle East.
As the largest pay-TV network in Asia with top tier channels across every genre, FIC leverages this scale to secure the best content available in the market for every category of audience. In addition to acquiring content, FIC also invests in original productions across genres to provide exclusive programming that is made for audiences in Asia, which include Asia’s Next Top Model for STAR World, global hit properties like The Walking Dead on FOX Movies Premium and I Wouldn’t Go In There on National Geographic Channel.
EMP is a subsidiary of Emperor Group, which has grown and expanded into a group of listed companies, comprising businesses ranging from property, hotel, financial service, media, printing, publishing, entertainment, catering, to retailing. Looking ahead, EMP will continue to collaborate with local and international partners in areas of development, financing and production of high-quality films of different genres by the best creative talents.
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Press Contacts:
Fleishman-Hillard
James Hacking
Tel: +852 2967 8982
Email: James.Hacking@bluecurrentgroup.com
Shirley Lam
Tel: +852 2111 3171
Email: shirley.lam@fleishman.com
FOX International Channels
Kelly Jang
Tel: +852 2621 8875
Email: kelly.jang@fox.com
About FOX International Channels FOX International Channels (FIC) is News Corporation’s international multi-media business. We develop, produce and distribute 350 wholly- and majority-owned entertainment, factual, sports and movie channels across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa, in 37 languages. These networks and their related mobile, non-linear and high-definition extensions reach over 1.1 billion households worldwide. We also operate a global online advertising unit .FOX (“dot-fox”) specialized in online video and display, and four TV production houses. In Asia, FIC operates or distributes 37 channel brands, including the FOX, STAR and National Geographic brands, with over 100 feeds across 14 markets, As the leading pay-TV network in the region, FIC reaches more than 550 million cumulative subscribers across Asia Pacific and the Middle East with offices in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Australia, New Zealand and the UAE. For more information, please visit www.foxinternationalchannels.com.
About Star Chinese Movies (SCM)
STAR Chinese Movies (SCM) is the no. 1 Chinese movies channel in Asia and is the premier destination for lovers of blockbuster Chinese cinema, with more than 1,000 titles in its film inventory. SCM is dedicated to provide first-run, premium content as well as cutting-edge advanced services. Premiering box-office hits from Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan, SCM guarantees exclusives from top Chinese and Asian producers and major studios such as Emperor Motion Pictures, Media Asia, Pegasus and Fortune Star. In addition to hit movies, SCM also offers a powerful combination of live events, major concerts and acclaimed Asian documentaries in Cantonese or Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles. This unrivalled content together with HD viewing, a VOD service and a market-leading online on-demand service called SCM Play, the channel provides an unmatched entertainment experience.
Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP)
Founded in 2000, Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP) is engaged in the field of financing, production and distribution of feature films and television dramas, audio-visual product production and distribution, as well as artiste management.
Over the past years, films financed and produced by EMP have won numerous awards and dominated the box-office. They include leading character actor Nick Cheung’s unprecedented seven acting awards for “The Beast Stalker” in 2009, followed two years later by Nicholas Tse’s best actor triumph at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards for “The Stool Pigeon”. Other notable feature film projects such as “The Twins Effect”, “New Police Story”, “Shaolin”, “The Great Magician”, “The Bullet Vanishes”, “The Last Supper” and “Beginning of The Great Revival”, etc., has all won public accolades, with Dante Lam’s action blockbuster “The Viral Factor” becoming Hong Kong’s top-grossing Chinese-language film during Lunar New Year in 2012. Even more impressively, actor-director Jiang Wen’s “Let The Bullets Fly” grossed more than RMB 700 million at China’s box-office, a record high in 2010. Jackie Chan’s “CZ12″ has hit yet another milestone with RMB 1.3 billion international box-office up till March 2013.
Concurrently, EMP is dedicated to bringing top foreign-language films to the Hong Kong audience. After critical and commercial success with Japan’s controversial “Departures”, an Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, EMP went on to score major hits with Korea’s “Silenced” and global Hollywood sensations “Sex and the City”, “Limitless”, “The Hunger Games”. In addition to actively developing and expanding its distribution activities into China to service its upcoming slate of productions, EMP has also recently branched out into artiste management. Casting its nets far and wide, EMP now represents a number of well established stars, including Simon Yam, Wai Ying-hung, Damian Lau, Michelle Yim, and Irene Wan.