Ingenious Media joins Hejing Capital in historic $200 million film-making deal
A London-based investment company has made history by becoming the first to take advantage of the UK-China film co-production treaty.
Ingenious Media has partnered with Beijing’s Hejing Culture to co-finance and co-produce a series of independent films, in a deal worth $200m (£138m).
Neil Forster, chief executive of Ingenious, told City PM that the first joint production would be announced very soon.
We’re both very keen to move into production quite swiftly within weeks rather than months. We’re looking for global films for a global audience.
Ingenious Media has been investing in the creative sector since it was founded in 1998.
It has helped to produce hundreds of big-budget features such as Avatar and Life of Pi, as well as Oscar-nominated films such as Brooklyn and Carol.
Forster described Hejing Culture as a “very interesting” partner, given their strong links to China’s private and public sector and their strong commitment to promoting Chinese culture.
“We’re so honoured to launch this programme of internationalisation by partnering with Ingenious,” said Zhang Ziyi, CEO of Hejing Culture. "I truly believe we can co-develop some great western and eastern film and TV projects together.”